Triple Trouble
by Sky's Breaker
Summary: Three siblings are captured by the Decepticons, unsure exactly why they are needed. In fact, most of the Decepticons themselves are unsure, except for Megatron and Knock Out. As they get used to living with each other, unexpected bonds form as time goes on. However, stranger things happen, and the three are left to question even themselves.
1. Capture

Chapater One

AN: So, I'm starting a new thing… again. Ugh, this ADD is getting on my last nerves with not finishing things -.- Oh well… I have recently obtained Fall of Cybertron, and I must say, I found favourite characters in those I least expected, mostly Jazz and Swindle (and by extension, Bruticus). If you haven't played that game… for a fan of Transformers, it is the story we always wanted and finally got.

Enough of my blabbering… Here's my latest story!

Disclaimer: I'll just let this apply to the entire story, seeing as you don't read a new story chapter two and beyond. I don't own the Transformers Franchise, just my game, Decepticon T-shirt, various toys and my season one TFP disc… eheheh…

And nor do I own the games that I mention… just one of the costumes…

-:-

Three kids stood outside in a park, playing pretend. Though, saying kids was an understatement. The oldest was eighteen, making her a legal adult in their country of origin, while her two brothers were sixteen and thirteen.

What they were playing required them to dress up; two of them wore long black coats with chains on the front and a black hood. The oldest had on a white hair wig, and while her costume required a black band across her eyes, she wore glasses making that impossible without causing pain to her face. The older of the two brothers also wore the black coat, but he had his brown hair slicked back a little, and then had it wavy spiked up in the back.

Those two were playing as characters from a video game series, Kingdom Hearts. The girl was playing as a character named Riku, while her brother was playing as a character named Lexaeus. Their little brother had on a very different outfit, one from a very famous videogame. He had on a white turtleneck, and over that was a green tunic. He had on a long green hat, and brown pants. He was playing as the famous character Link from the legend of Zelda series.

By the fence were several bags, two belonging to the oldest, two belonging to the middle brother, and one belonging to the youngest. The sister's bags contained various things; her laptop and one game for it, iPad, iPod nano, cords of various sorts, a few notebooks, her ocarina, favourite Xbox game and her DS and games for that. All in all, she carried with her what she thought she needed to keep on her.

The middle sibling had in one bag, though marginally smaller than the other bags, his diabetic equipment; needles to draw blood with, test strips, glucose meter, insulin vials, insulin pens and a juice box in case he went low. In his other bag, he had a laptop as well, cords, iPod nano, DS and games, and his favourite book on world war two.

The youngest sibling had in his one bag his DS system, favourite stuffed penguin named Piplup which was worse for wear; his head had to be sewn back on at least twice before, and his journal and some pens.

The three siblings had intended to spend the entire day outside, seeing as it was such a beautiful day, and the younger two had been forced outdoors by their older sister, who also acted as guardian for them. Their parents had died recently, leaving the oldest as legal guardian of the younger two.

While it was a sad day that both parents died, she was glad that she had been able to keep her brothers. Together, the three siblings make an amazing team, one hard to beat.

They played in their respective costumes and roles for a few more minutes, before the oldest two began to lose interest. Not that they wanted to; the oldest had ADD, while the middle one had ADHD. The youngest just shrugged and went along with it; and took his spare change of clothes into the park's bathroom to change. Each had brought a spare set of clothes because, while the youngest wasn't that bad in the sun, the older two's costumes were all black, even though you couldn't see most of it, the underneath clothes were black too.

When the youngest had changed and returned, the older brother went to change his clothes. Meanwhile, the youngest was opening his bag, pulling out his DS and settling under a tree for the shade. As the older two switched so the oldest was now changing, two vehicles pulled up in the park's parking lot; a hefty blue truck and a sleek red sports car.

"I can't believe Lord Megatron has us capturing three small, annoying flesh bags for him," a voice came from the red car. In all truth, it was the red car that was talking.

The blue truck just made a grunting noise, and then responded after a few minutes. "So, which one do you wanna take?" he asked, knowing that his companion would only dare take one into his interior.

The red car scowled at the thought, but risking not doing as Lord Megatron asked was a risk he wouldn't dare take. He watched the three flesh bags closely, deciding which one wasn't the most disgusting. It wasn't an easy task, they all were. He grumbled at the thought, but finally decided. "Fine, I'll take the smallest one." His companion just grunted in agreement; there was no arguing with his friend right now; and besides, he wouldn't let the other know this, but the older human mech was much stronger looking than the other mech. He couldn't care less about the femme; she looked weak, but she was what appeared to be the leader of the trio.

"Knock Out, when do you want to act?" the blue truck asked his friend.

The red car let his engine idle, "Soon, Breakdown. Wait for them to walk over here."

While the two brothers were busy, one on a laptop, the other on a DS, their sister had been car watching. She couldn't help herself; she had a thing for some cars, especially Corvettes. Corvettes were her favourite, especially the older ones. The newer ones were nice, but the coke bottle design of some of the older ones were really good looking in her eyes.

She scanned the parking lot and the road; no Corvettes to drool over right now. However, there was a fairly alright looking red car across the park that caught her attention. It didn't have as many curves as she liked in a car, but it was better than the white Challenger a few cars down.

Beside the red sports car was a fairly big, blue truck. Initially, she had planned to get a big truck, then save up for a Corvette, so she knew a good truck when she saw one. She rolled over on the grass, staring up at the leaves of the tree they were under. The sunlight was penetrating through in a few spots, but mostly the leaves caught the sunlight and looked like they were glowing. It was quite nice and peaceful, something they hadn't had in a long time.

"Michael, can you test, please?" the sister asked the oldest brother. He nodded, grabbed the smaller bag of his and brought out the various things needed to test his blood sugar level. He held a pen shaped tool to his finger and pressed a button. The needle inside dropped down, pricking his fingertip and drawing blood.

The red car had noticed this, and was slightly confused. He knew the basics of what the human was made of; and as far as he knew, blood, the humans equivalent of Energon, was supposed to not be taken out of the body.

The blood was drawn from the fingertip, and immediately, a small device with a thin strip sticking out of the top was brought to the bleeding finger. The thin strip soaked up the blood the moment it had made contact, and the brother had to cover the top of the device to see what it had said.

"5.8, Kirstin," the brother told his sister.

She nodded at her brother, and looked at the other one; he was so peaceful, propped up against the tree playing his game. "Travis," she said, getting the younger one's attention. "Time to pack up, time to go get some dinner."

The youngest nodded, and slipped the DS in his back pack. He slung it over his shoulder and began to wait for the other two. Their sister didn't take too long to gather her laptop bag and shoulder bag, while the middle sibling took the longest; not that the other two were surprised.

When all was packed up, they made their way to the parking lot. The park was quiet; not a soul was there, which was odd, considering that it was a Saturday. Their car, a red sedan, sat beside the blue truck Kirstin had eyed earlier.

As they walked past the red sports car, Kirstin stopped. "Hey Michael, how about this type of car? Sporty enough?" she asked, pointing to said car.

"It's alright, I guess. Must be an import, I don't recognize the make." When Michael said he didn't recognize the make, it was only a few times. The problem with the older two siblings with cars was that Michael liked the sharper corners, while Kirstin liked more curves. "I really like that Challenger over there, though it could have this paint job and detailing. That'd be cool."

"I guess. It'd also look good on a Corvette. Whatever, lets go," she said, and grabbed Travis' arm, leading him along.

With their backs turned to them, Knock Out and Breakdown decided that it was then that they would grab the three humans. They decided to activate their holoforms, something Knock Out had designed for the Decepticon's commanding officers if they ever should need it. He also had Breakdown receive one, mostly because they were the two who interacted with the human race the most, even if they detested it greatly.

Knock Out stepped out in front of the trio, while Breakdown stood behind.

Kirstin cocked her head to the side slightly. "Can we help you?"

Knock Out grinned, while the trio heard a dark chuckle behind them. All three of them had pounding hearts at this; Kirstin and Travis were scared, and Michael stood up in front of them. The had backed towards the park, slowing walking away. However, every time they moved, Knock Out and Breakdown seemed to take twice the distance.

Michael narrowed his eyes at the two approaching. "Leave us alone," he said in a strong voice, getting his fists ready in case he needed to fight. However, before he had time to think, Breakdown had somehow managed to grab his hands and held them tight.

Kirstin and Travis realized what had happened, and instead of running away like they should have, they went to help their brother. Travis tried as hard as he could, but he couldn't land a single hit on the one holding their brother. His sister wasn't much better, as the moment she went in for a hit, she was grabbed by Knock Out.

She struggled, but his grip was much stronger than he himself appeared to be. Knock Out looked at the femme, then at the small mech trying to attack Breakdown. "Change of plans Breakdown, I'll grab this one," Knock Out said with a smirk, and dragged Kirstin to his alt mode. She wrestled the entire way, but was shoved violently into a vehicle a few seconds later. She watched as her two brothers were dragged into the blue truck; fearing for the worst.

Knock Out has having a hard time deciding if he should knock her out for the ride or not; while she had initially had struggled, she hadn't made a move or noise since they began to drive. All she did was stare out the window at the rear view mirror, watching Breakdown behind them. She was concerned for her brothers, that much was evident.

Breakdown had taking no time in knocking out the two human mechs he had in him; he didn't want any disturbances while driving to the coordinates of an energon mine. "Hey Knock Out, is the human knocked out?"

When Kirstin heard the voice come through the radio, she jumped at first, but then settled down and kept watching the side mirror.

"No, she's not. She's as quiet as Soundwave is, though. Strange, I thought all humans were loud and obnoxious," Knock Out replied, glancing at the femme. She was strange; she commanded a certain air around her, and yet, when cornered, she let her brother stand up for her. All in all, she reminded him of a certain flier.

-:-

AN: I really didn't want to stop writing that chapter, but I suppose I should stop some time or another. Anyways, really boring first chapter, I know. But, it will hopefully get better over time. Well, reviews, faves or even follows would make my day.


	2. Road

Chapter Two

AN: Thanks for the positive reception of this story, guys! I honestly didn't think it'd get over 100 views in less than two days… anyways. Thanks for the reviews, faves and follows. They were an honest surprise, and the best I've had so far ^.^

-:-

"Knock Out, why not just zap her?" Breakdown said through the red car's stereo system.

Knock Out, however, just focused on the road. "She's not doing anything except breathing. I think she's broken."

Kirstin steadied her breathing, "You know that I can hear you, right?" she muttered. "And I'm not broken, it's just that you are going at a very high speed, and I figure that I'd rather not become road kill by jumping out of the vehicle. Plus, I haven't a clue where I am, and I am not leaving without my brothers."

_Hmm_, Knock Out thought to himself, _This one is definitely smart, that's for sure._ "So, do you like flying?" he asked the human femme.

She was taken by surprise. "Uh, not particularly, no. The fear of falling and going splat on the ground below is a big factor." She watched the person in the driver's seat grin at what she said, giving her an even worse feeling in the pit of her stomach.

They had spent nearly two hours on the road, when Knock Out finally began to slow down. He was debating whether or not to stun the human femme, but what he and Breakdown didn't know was that the three siblings were major Scifi fans.

After a few minutes, Knock Out and Breakdown pulled into an energon mine, where Kirstin got her first glimpse at Cybertronians. She only had a few seconds to look, because Knock Out shoved her out of his car and transformed in front of her. Breakdown did the same, except her two brothers were still out cold.

She stared up in awe as Knock Out and Breadown transformed before her, more excited than scared. "Wow… That is amazing!" she yelled, causing several of the miners to stare at her. She immediately shrank back at the unwanted attention. However, she couldn't get over the fact that there were giant sentient robots standing before her. It was probably one of the best things that she had ever experienced.

The miners went back to work, cutting at the energon sticking out of the ground. Knock Out looked around, and when he spotted the Second in Command, he picked up the femme by her shirt and dropped her in his other hand.

Kirstin watched Breakdown pick up her two unconscious brothers. "Careful," she said to him, making him look at her. She shrank back when she noticed that he only had one eye.

Breakdown smirked at the femme, "I promise."

Knock Out rolled his eyes at the two and brought the femme in his hands to Starscream, who stood about the miners, ordering them about. "Commander Starscream, we've brought the humans that Lord Megatron requested."

Starscream leaned in and observed what appeared to be a human femme in Knock Out's servo. "Interesting," he said, as Kirstin sat there, tempted to tap on his face which was a little more than two feet away from her. He then shifted his gaze to the two human mechs, which were unconscious at the time. "Lord Megatron will be pleased with these, I am sure," Starscream said before picking up the femme from Knock Out. "Bring the other two," he said, before tossing the human up in the air, transforming into a jet, and catching her in the cockpit.

When she saw what she was in, Kirstin began to panic. "We're not flying out of here, are we?"

Starscream growled at the human. "Yes, we are. Now be quiet and let me fly in peace." He flew down a tunnel and out into the open sky. Kirstin grabbed onto the seat she was in as hard as she could, and Starscream could feel it. "You're not scared, are you?"

Kirstin gave a light chuckle. "Sorta, I'm more scared of the aspect of falling than flying," she explained. "So, why do you want my brothers and I, when you could get any other human?"

"Because we've seen you three work together better than any others," he explained as he flew towards the Nemesis.

That took the human by surprise. "Better than any others? Sure, we work together alright, but we fight more often than work together."

Starscream growled; this human was slightly annoying. "Yes, better than others. Now please be quiet, fleshy, unless you'd rather I drop you off right here and now."

Kirstin gripped the seat. "No thanks," she whispered, looking out of the window. She couldn't even see the ground; they were above the clouds. She was worried about her brothers' safety before her own, but they appeared to be in ground vehicles, not one flying to the destination.

She looked ahead of them, and from behind a cloud emerged a huge airship. She stared in awe at it, wondering how something that huge could possibly hide from detection. However, before she could think about it, she was thrown into the air by Starscream, and caught when he had transformed. "Now, I suggest you keep quiet, unless you want to get hurt," Starscream threatened, ensuring that the human would stay quiet.

He hadn't needed to threaten, though; Kirstin had already planned on being as silent as possible. While this fascinated her to the extreme, one look at the talon like fingers this thing had and she could already imaging the kind of damage they could cause.

Instead, as Starscream walked into the Nemesis, Kirstin grabbed onto one of the appendages to ensure that she didn't fall down.

As Starscream walked, he had the urge to shake his servo; but a greater threat stopped him from doing so. While he was still technically recovering from his last bad encounter with Megatron, failing to deliver something that he wanted in a less than perfect condition was asking to be offlined. Yet, he still didn't fully understand why these pesky little insects were needed.

He narrowed his eyes at the human. "You can let go; you won't fall."

"And what if I do? Are you certain your reflexes are quick enough to catch me at an unexpected moment?" Kirstin countered, still gripping onto the finger. "And I refuse to let go until I see that my brothers are safe."

"Is that all you think about?" Starscream growled slightly at her. "Have you no regard for anything else?"

Kirstin huffed. "I would, except the world is either sink or swim. It's dark and cruel, and not welcoming to new ideas, however many support it."

Starscream thought for a minute about what the human had said. All in all, he wasn't surprised, given how primitive the dominant species was. He looked ahead and realised that the bridge was just ahead. "Keep quiet," he said as he walked in.

-:-

Travis sat in Knock Out's servo as the mech walked to the bridge where he was supposed to meet Megatron and present the humans to him. Michael was beside him, in one of Breakdown's servos. Travis looked over at his brother and saw him fidgeting. He spoke up. "Hey Michael, stay calm."

Michael looked at his brother. "Stay calm? We have no idea where Kirstin is, if she's okay or not."

"She'll be fine," the younger one reassured the older one. "If anything, she'll bore whoever has her with facts about history."

Michael smiled at this. While their sister was able to retain, and loved researching, facts about ancient history, Michael specialized in modern warfare and basically everything modern. "That's probably true."

Knock Out scowled at the two humans. The one he carried in his servo had not shut up since he had first woken up. He contained so many questions, for one so small. "Will you be quiet? You're getting to be worse than Starscream, for Pit's sake."

Michael raised an eyebrow at the foreign name, while Travis was the one who asked "Who's Starscream? Is he one of you guys? How big is he?"

Before the kid could say anything else, Knock Out covered him with his other servo. "Ah, here we are." He glanced down at his servos. "I suggest you be quiet, flesh bag."

He and Breakdown entered the bridge, and almost laughed at the SIC's expression as the human femme he carried was hanging onto one of his talons. His eyes were widened slightly with disgust, but wouldn't say anything, given the last time Megatron had reprimanded him for making a big mistake caused him to end up in Knock Out's medical bay.

Megatron stood a little farther into the large room, with Vehicons scattered around on various consoles, making sure the warship was running in perfect order. Knock Out spoke up, causing their leader to turn around. "Lord Megatron, we have the three humans you requested."

The leader of the Decepticons looked at the three humans closely, his eyes settling on the femme human. "Are you afraid?" he asked.

Kirstin looked into his ruby red optics. "Of what? Falling; yes. You guys? Not particularly. I mean, this is more amazing than anything I've ever seen."

Megatron turned his gaze to the two younger human mechs. "And you?"

Michael merely shrugged at the leader. "No," he said carelessly. Travis had a slightly cocky grin on his face, "Nope," he said, popping the 'p'.

The leader then turned to Starscream. "Ensure the human you have obtains comfortable living conditions by the end of the day, Starscream." He turned to Knock Out and Breakdown, and relayed the same instructions. "Also, Knock Out, once your human is able to sustain himself, I suggest you return to working on your little project."

Once their leader had resumed his position on the bridge, Starscream sent a glare at him before stalking out, human in hand. Knock Out and Breakdown simply shrugged, then went to speak to Soundwave for a Groundbridge to a human town with sufficient shopping centres.

The two mechs transformed into their vehicle modes, allowing their respective humans to climb in; Knock Out more reluctant that Breakdown. Once safely secured, the two drove through the Groundbridge before them, coming out somewhere in the western part of the United States.

Starscream grumbled the entire way to the flight deck, even when Kirstin had finally let go of his talon in order to try standing up in his servo. "So, do even know where to go?" she asked the SIC. Starscream remained silent and continued on his way, trying to ignore the human in his hand.

"Do you or do you not know where to go to get stuff for a human?"

The flier narrowed his optics at the annoying human he held. "I believe the place you are referring to is a shopping centre, am I correct?" he asked with venom in his voice.

Kirstin furrowed her brows slightly. "Jeez, lay off the bite, why don't you?"

"You dare talk to me like that, you little insect?"

The human in his servo looked at his arm and decided it was climbable. When she had made it up to his shoulder plating, she sat, trying not to look down. "I have a name, you know," she said with just as much venom in her voice. "And I don't like being called an _insect_ either."

Starscreams optics widened slightly. "How did you get up there? I thought you were afraid of falling," he said in surprise.

"That may be true, but you also called me a name which I didn't like, and I don't take negative comments directed at me or my brothers very well," Kirstin explained. "So, you know where to take me, it seems… How about I give you a direction which would make our trip oh so easier."

"Fine," the flier grumbled. At least he wouldn't be flying in circles with a human femme nagging him the entire time.

-:-

AN: Ha! I finally finished it. I do have some ideas for this story, but they come later after this whole thing. I think KO and BD are taking to the humans better than Scream is. Oh well. Ugh… so much to learn for this story if I want to educate any of them about Cybertron… Fuh…

Once again, thank you all for the positive feedback on the previous chapter.


	3. Shopping, Oh so fun

Chapter Three

AN: Holy Primus almighty, here's chapter three. Already? Well, I was writing and writing, and then had to snuggle with a little brother, then wrote some more. And finally it is done! I'm trying to keep to a 2k word min a chap, but we'll see how it goes from here.

Now, I've never been to the US, closest I got was a town that's only half an hour away from the border. Beautiful camping spot, just not when there's a forest fire above your campground and also a rather larger one in your hometown. 2003 was not a good year for fires, let me tell ya.

Anyways, hope this one is alright. Totally not impressed with Episode four of TFP season three… just a major let down in my books. Two things… Ultra Magnus looks like a bunny, and is the leader of the Wreckers… (still trying to comprehend that one), and Shockwave, however sick and twisted he may be, is AWESOME. He's purple, has an awesome alt mode, awesome gun, loves logic over anything… think I may have found my ultimate fave Con from TFP… or rather the aligned continuity… that's what TFP falls under, as well as WfC and FoC.

-:-

Knock Out sighed as the young human mech inside him couldn't keep still. He had flicked on his holoform as soon as the group had entered a human settlement, Breakdown doing the same. The human inside his vehicle form began to tap his thin fingers on the dash, irritating Knock Out until the red mech finally snapped.

"Will you stop that?!" he nearly yelled, almost stopping in the middle of the road.

Travis looked up at Knock Out's holoform with a slightly guilty look on his face. "Sorry," he muttered and looked at the road ahead of them.

Michael and Breakdown were getting along better than the others were. While neither had much similar interests, the one thing that tied them together well enough was war. Michael had great interest in it, studying to great extents, and Breakdown, while silent most of the time, was glad to go into detail about battles back on Cybertron.

The human asked just the right questions, and Breakdown in turn was glad that the human was able to understand the military tactics they used. Eventually, the conversation was turned the opposite way, and Breakdown began to gain interest in the modern warfare that this organic planet had.

Each understood the other fine, Michael with his extensive knowledge on Earth's great wars, and Breakdown with his thrilling tales of battles of the Great War.

After a while, Breakdown noticed Knock Out was slowing down considerably, then turned into a large shopping building. Michael looked up at the sign for the store they were going to; Wal-Mart. The human was happy that they were going to a semi-familiar store, at least he would know the contents.

Travis noticed the sign right away and did a small fist pump in the air. "Yes, there's a toy section!" Knock Out looked sideways at his charge with curiosity. Toys? This one seemed a little old for something intended for those younger than him. None the less, he drove around the parking lot, Breakdown following him, searching for a parking spot.

They eventually found two that were located close to the store's entrance. The moment the vehicles were stopped, both Michael and Travis jumped out and ran to each other. Knock Out and Breakdown soon followed in holoform, looking around.

Michael looked around, finally spotting a shopping cart that they could use. "You guys have money?"

Knock Out rolled his holoform's eyes. "Of course we do; you think we wouldn't?"

Travis gave Michael a side glance for asking a rather stupid question, then pushed the cart towards the store. Knock Out grabbed the younger one's shoulder. "Wait up for us; and no splitting off. I don't want you getting lost or even worse, stolen. I'd rather not have to get in trouble."

The humans sighed, hoping that they wouldn't be interested in anything that wasn't needed. "Alright fine, pinkie promise," Travis said, shrugging off Knock Out's hand.

The group finally made it into the store; the two mechs were honestly surprised at how busy everyone seemed; it reminded them somewhat of what the larger markets were like before the war. "Alright, just the basics," Breakdown reminded the humans, but they had other ideas.

"Well, you want us to not bother you?" Michael asked slyly, Knock Out catching onto the tone.

He narrowed his eyes. "That'd be ideal. Why, what would you want?"

Michael and Travis grinned at each other, then Travis shrugged. "Well, it was an entertainment system that has a multitude of games for it."

The older human leaned towards Breakdown. "And half of them deal with war and fighting," he said in a quieter tone. "And the other half, is mostly racing." He grinned, seeing Knock Out look at them differently.

"We're listening," Knock Out said.

-:-

Starscream was currently flying around the sky, refraining from pulling any stunts. He was afraid of the human inside his cockpit purging. "So, where was it you intended to guide me?"

Kirstin sat on the seat, strapped in on her request, crossed arms on her chest. "Well, it would help if I had some heading as to where we are." The moment she said that, a screen popped up in front of her, showing their exact location in the world. "Oh, thank you," she said.

"Well, we're close to Vancouver; might as well stop there," Kirstin said to Starscream. "Um… we're going into a densely populated area. Not sure people will react well with a military jet landing in the middle of a parking lot."

Starscream growled at the human. He should've expected this much. "I'll find a cluster of trees and cloak myself," he grumbled.

-:-

Knock Out, Breakdown, Michael and Travis had been in the store for all of five minutes, and the two humans were already driving the others up the wall. "So by basics, what do you mean?" Michael asked Knock Out, who seemed to be refraining from leaving the two humans in the store.

"Whatever you need to survive. Whatever it is you sustain yourself on… what was it called again?"

Michael just rolled his eyes. "Fine, we'll get the basics. Um, do you have living areas for us already set up?"

"Well, what do you think?" Knock Out said with a little more venom than he should have.

The older human narrowed his eyes at Knock Out, but his younger brother caught onto the look instantly. Too many times had he seen his brother blow up at small and stupid things, and didn't want this to happen in Wal-Mart.

Travis stepped in front of his brother and told him to calm down, and reminded him that he himself knew what he needed. He then turned to Knock Out. "Do you even know how to care for him? He's a diabetic, and therefore he needs certain things that others humans can provide naturally."

Knock Out looked at Breakdown for a second, then back to his charge. "And what is that?"

"Well, we cant get it at Wal-Mart, that's for sure," Travis said, glad that his brother hadn't exploded. "We need to go to a pharmacy for it."

Breakdown rolled his eyes, anxious to get this over with. "Alright, fine, we'll go there after," he said, and began to walk towards an isle that seemed semi-interesting.

The other three had no choice but to follow Breakdown into the isle, looking for things that they figured they would need."

-:-

In contrast to her brothers following Breakdown and Knock Out around a store, it was Kirstin who was leading Starscream around the store they were in. In the first fifteen minutes, she had picked out and tried on several pairs of jeans, shirts and two hoodies.

"Do you honestly need this many changes of these clothes that you wear?" Starscream asked, intending on complaining the entire time they were at the store.

Kirstin smirked at his holoform; it looked miserable. "Yes, I do. I've learned over the years with dealing with my brothers that having spare clothes is always a must. Now, next on the list… How often are we going to be shopping for food?"

"Every second Earth week. Can we please hurry this up, human?"

"I have a name, you know," Kirstin muttered before pushing the cart in the direction of the food section of the store. "Now, what should I get that'd last a little while?" she asked herself before going for the fruit and vegetables.

Kirstin spent probably ten minutes in the food section of the store; she was a proficient shopper, if anything. Having had to do most of it with her brothers, on her own she got things done twice as fast. Well, she wasn't entirely alone, but Starscream wasn't asking for every second thing on the shelf.

After she was done, an idea formed in her head. "Hey, Starscream. Um, do you want me to be bugging you most of the time? And how about a screen for entertaining me?"

Starscream groaned. "There's already one set up in your quarters. And I thought the items you had with you would keep you entertained."

"Yeah, but there's a few more items I need to pick up. And some after that; which would be best not to ask about, seeing as only females need them once a month." She set off in the direction of the entertainment section, in search for a game console that she was familiar with. It was easy to find, seeing as there were only three main consoles a person could buy in the store.

She looked at the shelves surrounding it, and also decided on a few other games to buy. She picked out two the other two games that the store had in the series that she loved oh so much, Halo. She had the latest game with her, seeing as it was her favourite, but her brothers preferred the previous titles to the newer one.

She also picked up a few racing games, as well as two different Call of Duty games. While she didn't prefer that series, seeing as it had no story that was believable, to her at least, her brothers liked it much more. She also made sure to pick up to rechargeable battery packs for the controllers, as she didn't want to continuously buy batteries.

Kirstin then looked down a different isle. This one contained DVD's, just what she was looking for. She quickly scanned the isle, plucking whichever film caught her interest off the shelf. By the end of the isle she had about a dozen and a half Disney films, plus a few action ones. She steered clear of any romance movies, but also picked up a few seasons of the Vampire Diaries; the only show she would really watch, and four seasons of Family Guy. It paid to have some mindless humour that she could zone on for a while.

As Kirstin made her way to the final isles that she needed to go into, she looked at Starscream and grinned slightly. "You might want to stay at the end of this isle," she advised.

"And why would I do that?" Starscream questioned, while walking without hesitation into the isle. The other few women in the isle looked at Starscream with wonder. Not many men ventured into this specific isle for good reason. Those who did were looked highly upon; they weren't afraid.

Kirstin giggled slightly at this, picked up two separate packages and threw them into the cart. "Next, bathroom stuff."

-:-

By the time all of them had returned, the two human mechs had managed to convince them to buy a lot of things that weren't really needed, but they kept the threat of bothering them about their heads. Knock Out took Travis, and all of his items, to his own recharging room, and set the human down near his own divided off area.

"This is where you are to stay. Everything you need electrically is provided. I suggest you organize yourself and not wander too far. We usually don't watch our step," Knock Out explained, leaving Travis in his make-shift room to set himself up.

Breakdown did something similar, but seeing as he wasn't need right away, and had no other plans for the day, he helped Michael set up most of his stuff. Each of the boys had bought their own Xbox, as had their sister, but they didn't know that just yet.

Once Michael's Xbox was set up and ready to go, Breakdown watched the human play a shooting game, and eventually turned on his holoform to join in as player two on a zombie mode.

Starscream didn't even bother to explain to his human of what to do; he just dropped her and her things in her area and walked out of the room to the bridge.

Kirstin just shrugged at the actions and organized her purchases. Turned out that the Decepticons had done some research as to what a human might need. She had a working bathroom, to her surprise. As well as a microwave and a fridge, there was a large screen across from her bed, and what appeared to be a desk. The 'room' also had multiple outlets, perfect for however many things she needed to plug in.

Once she had everything organized, she began to wonder to herself if there was any internet access up in the warship. She hoped so, because playing by herself would prove to get boring eventually. She then thought of her brothers; knowing Travis, he'd have conned himself and Michael an Xbox each as well. If there was internet, all three of them had a year long Gold subscription that she had just renewed last week. They could play together, given they had the same games.

She grinned as she stood up from configuring her system; she was getting tired, not to mention restless, so she decided that going for a walk would be the best thing. However, as she approached the door to the room her 'room' was located in, she encountered a slight problem; it wouldn't open.

High above her was a key pad that had a red light glowing. "Just great. I'm locked in," she told herself, and settled for exploring the rest of the room, which appeared to be Starscream's sleeping quarters.

Travis, like his sister, had gotten bored and, ignoring the new shiny toys he had, explored Knock Out's room. Most things were too high for him to reach, so he settled with just inspecting them from afar. In this room there appeared to be a bed, a desk and a bunch of glowing blue screens scattered across both objects and some on the floor.

Walking over to one, he found that it was easily too large for him to be able to read comprehensively, but was able to activate something on it by using his foot and stepping on it. "Cool," he muttered as he explored it. The only problem he encountered was that he couldn't even read the markings on it, seeing as it wasn't any language known to mankind.

-:-

AN: Thank you to those who reviewed, faved and followed. And thanks for reading this far. Really glad people like it, and it's not just scrap.

*giggles at the upcoming ideas for the story*

Anyways, I wasn't too sure again where to stop it, but what I was about to write seemed better to fit the beginning of a chapter, not the end of one.


	4. Online Interactions Not Rated

Chapter Four

AN: Woo! And ouch, my wrist is aching from all the typing I've been doing. Honestly, my brain chooses the most illogical songs for the moments I write -,- not impressed with it. At all.

So, yeah. I had to take a day break because my wrist went out of commission. Plus, I fell in love with _the_ cutest TFP story ever. It's called 'The Little One' by sakiko of soleana. I'm dying of cuteness with it. Like Starscream? Like Dreadwing? That story is a must read. Seriously, go check it out.

Joor = 6 hours

Breem = 8.3 minutes

Decivorn = 8.3 years

Anyways, thanks to everyone who's read this! (still getting over that it's getting the best reception a story has gotten that I've written)

I don't own Runescape… if I did, it'd be rid of those who use the term 'swag' every other word… -,- they are glitches, and are fun to shoot down with proper language.

-:-

Knock Out grumbled in the medical bay, which doubled as his 'lab'. He was currently working on the project that Lord Megatron had ordered him to complete; something that had originally been scrapped during the later days of the war. It was originally one of Shockwave's projects, but as the days on Cybertron grew shorter, with the dwindling supply of energon, this one was left in the storage vault.

The initial idea of it was to take sentient organic life forms and cyber form them. That was the idea; achieving said idea, however, was an entirely different story. The serum that was to be injected into the organic was far from stable, and no matter what Knock Out tried, from his knowledge of chemicals to the ones found on the organic planet below, it almost always ended up blowing up.

Frustrated with the fifth mixture exploding in his face, he tossed the container aside and left his make-shift lab. This was proving to be almost futile; he only had a handful of known substance's to try before he had to start making other mixtures as well.

He left the medical bay, walking down the hallway; it was getting late anyways, and he had to check on the human in his quarters before going into recharge.

However, when he arrived at his room, he saw Travis jumping around on a data pad, looking at the Cybertronian glyphs on it. Knock Out walked in, bent down on his knees and plucked the human off the pad. "And what do you think you are doing?" he asked.

Travis simply shrugged, his eyes, half closed. "I was bored."

"But we bought you an entertainment system to keep you entertained," Knock Out countered, putting Travis close to the human's bed.

Travis climbed into it, looking at Knock Out. "Yeah, but it's only really fun when you play online with people," he complained, yawning and closing his eyes.

Knock Out made a humph noise. "I'll be sure to let Soundwave now you need access to the Earth's datanet tomorrow."

-:-

Out of the three humans and mechs, Breakdown and Michael were by far, getting along the easiest. Breakdown was used to pulling long hours, and Michael was accustomed to staying up late into the night; so they easily stayed up until about two or three in the morning when Breakdown decided it was time for both of them to rest.

Starscream and Kirstin, however, were a different story. The moment Starscream had entered his quarters, he cast a side glance to the Kirstin, only to see her hanging her head upside down off the side of her bed. Her face was getting rather red from the activity, and to be honest, she was getting a slight headache. However, that seemed to be the current way of occupying herself.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Starscream grumbled as the human sat up, allowing her face to return to it's proper colour.

Kirstin shrugged, "I was bored, and though I'm tired, I prefer to wait for the others around me to fall asleep. It has to do with watching brothers for quite some time, so you might not get it."

Starscream grimaced. Of course he knew what she was talking about. As a seeker, seekerlings were generally born with three or more siblings at the same time. However, surviving was the hard part. Most of the time, half of the bunch died within their sixth decivorn. "It is late, I suggest you recharge."

"I would, but it's cold."

The seeker's shoulder's sank; would this human not recharge without a fight? "You have a blanket, as it is called. That should suffice."

"Yeah, well, I'm cold." Kirstin crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Starscream growled at her before grabbing a data pad off his desk and sitting on his berth. He knew exactly how to fix the issue of the human's coldness, yet his pride and stubbornness kept him from acting on instinct.

"Well, then I suppose you'll have to find some way to keep yourself warm," Starscream grumbled at her, looking down at his data pad, but somehow he was unable to focus on it. He cursed his upbringing as a Seeker, and glanced over at the human. Were the other humans as cold as her, or was she just that different? he thought to himself as he bent over and picked up Kirstin.

He knew his chassis would be the warmest place, and the least likely for her to get squished, but he really didn't want her on him, other than in his servo. Groaning quietly to himself, he laid down and placed her on his chest plates, just above the Decepticon logo. "Not another word," he said quietly, then fell into a peaceful recharge.

Kirstin looked around; she was on Starscream's chest, which was surprisingly warm. She shrugged, and curled up as best she could on it, using her arms as a makeshift pillow. She fell into a fitful sleep, waking every three hours, until it was around five in the morning.

She was used to getting up at this time, seeing as her grandparents had gotten her in the habit of going swimming at seven in the morning for exercise. Why five, though? Her brothers took forever to wake up and get out the door.

However, she was still quite tired, and the warmth beneath her was too comforting to give up just yet; besides, she couldn't get down without seriously injuring herself. So, she reluctantly sat up and glanced around the room from the new angle.

Nothing was overly interesting to Kirstin, just a few glowing lights and such as she expected; this technically was a spaceship. She was bored, and ended up braiding and rebraiding her hair different ways, until Starscream woke up.

When he woke up from his recharge, he was aware that something small was on him, but it took him a moment to realize that it was the human he was charged with watching. He looked at her, then gingerly picked her up and put her in his other servo.

He then bent over and set her down on the floor. He himself needed his energon, and he was sure that the human needed to refuel as well. Without saying anything, he left the room, the door to it automatically closing it.

While on his way to get his energon, he ran into Knock Out, who looked rather pleased with himself. Starscream noticed, and immediately began to question why.

Knock Out just simply grinned; he had finally figured out one stabilizing ingredient in the serum that Lord Megatron had ordered finished. Starscream nodded at the situation; he was that much closer to be getting rid of the human.

Though, he thought as he walked, what would they be like when cyber formed? Given the right incentive, they would easily cooperate with the Decepticon cause. But what about their personality? Would they make good soldiers, or commanding officers? If the serum was finished before they could figure out these questions, then there might be a bump in the road.

These questions plagued his processor as he retrieved his daily energon. He took no notice to Soundwave, who had both Michael and Travis in his servo.

The communications officer had been charged with monitoring these two for the next two joors, seeing as Knock Out was to be working in the medical bay, and Breakdown had to attend to one of the energon mines.

To say that he had some idea what to do with the two humans in his servo was a misunderstanding. It's just that Soundwave was really their only option. Knock Out had seen how well his human had handled being alone for a while, being cooped up in his room and such. And Michael wasn't supposed to be left alone, seeing as he had a medical condition that hindered that.

By using some of the surveillance he had gathered, Soundwave was able to figure out that the two humans in his hand would react positively to online interactions via the primitive datanet the humans called the internet.

Michael, out of habit, had grabbed his laptop when leaving his room to go see Soundwave to be watched. Travis had obtained a laptop on the shopping trip, stating that he couldn't help with his brother if he didn't have one, which was bogus, but the Decepticons didn't know that.

Looking down at the primitive technology before him, Soundwave quickly tampered with the signal they could receive, and allowed them to access the internet directly via satellite. Hopefully that would keep them entertained for the remaining two joors that he had them.

Bringing them back to the bridge, he set them down on the floor, underneath a control panel, and released Laserbeak to watch them while he worked. That way, he had eyes on them, and they were out of the way so they wouldn't get stepped on.

The only thing that Soundwave hadn't counted on was Michael's ability to get angry at technology or online banter very easily. About a breem after he had set them down, the two were playing an online multiplayer game, called Runescape. It took place in a fantasy world, mixed in with a medieval feel.

However, in contrast to being a fun game, it had it's fair share of idiots that couldn't speak a proper language, unless one considered slang a proper language. The two brothers were at a place much like a market, where a player wouldn't shut up, using the term 'swag' and much more offensive terms.

Michael quickly typed back swears, while Travis' character sat beside them, trying to tone down the inappropriate language.

It eventually got to the point where Michael was yelling at his computer, under the control panel. Soundwave could say that he was thankful Lord Megatron had been absent, as the young human's language was as foul as those who would attend the underground gladiatorial matches back on Cybertron.

He was monitoring the whole conversation, and while he was in the defending position, Michael easily had the ability to be in the aggressor position. Travis, on the other hand, was always acting as a peace keeper, though it didn't help the situation much.

After monitoring it for a while, Soundwave decided that the human was too volatile and disconnected them from their game. Whining, the two humans did a quick check to see that their internet was still working, but no matter what they tried, be it the program itself or through the website, their game wouldn't load.

Soundwave looked down at the two humans, and played back a recording of both their voices, meshed together. "This game is making-" was the first part, which should've finished with 'me pissed off', however, Soundwave quickly added "You mad-" from the younger brother, as he had said multiple times as he typed 'you mad bro?' in the game.

The two were shocked for hearing their voices, but got over it soon enough. "Great, now what?" Michael said in a huff. Travis shrugged at his older brother.

"Youtube poop for My Little Pony?" the younger one suggested, quickly gaining Michael's interest. Michael laughed as he closed his laptop; his younger brother was better at finding the good videos for some strange reason.

The siblings sat on the cold floor, watching the humorous videos for the remainder of the first joor, when Soundwave finally decided that the two had cooled down enough to let them return to their online game, and let them know. While typing away at the console, he caused the application on Travis' computer to open automatically, giving the young one a scare.

The scare turned to joy as Michael flipped open his own computer and opened up the same application, to find that it worked.

-:-

Kirstin sat on her bed, surrounded by a blanket. She was cold, lonely, and bored out of her mind. Yes, she had an Xbox to play on. Yes, she had her laptop. Yes, she had other things to keep her busy, but whenever she did those things before, she always had her brothers' company. It just wasn't the same without them, and she knew that until she either got online or saw her brothers, her boredom pursued.

About an hour had passed, when Starscream returned, data pad in hand. He gave his human a side glance, only to see that she held the same expression as she did last night. He paid no attention to her, and only went over to his desk to go over the statistics the data pad held.

The human grumbled under her breath about finally being alone, and it sucking. However, Starscream's acute hearing picked up the mutterings, and he paid more attention to her. She was lonely, that much he could see. However, what he did next even surprised himself.

He picked up the human, put her on his desk, and pulled out a data pad. This one was smaller than the rest, as it was used for teaching younglings how to write. It held the Cybertronian equivalent of the alphabet, and Starscream figured the human might as well know how to read.

"This contains the basics," he explained, then pulling out a blank data pad the same size and wrote down the corresponding letters in English. Kirstin's eyes widened at the new language, glad to be learning something. Little did everyone know, she secretly harboured a love for languages, both new and old.

Starscream noticed the human's eyes grow, and he smirked. "I suggest you learn these. Once able to read coherent words, I'll give you something new to work on."

Kirstin nodded, finally able to do something other than sit on her bottom, bored out of her mind.

-:-

AN: So, yeah… my wrist hates me. -,-

Anyways, I've learned that proper language doesn't get you muted on a MMORPG, swearing does.

Thanks to everybody for reading this; means so much. -begins to tear up- You are awesome.

So, yeah, you really should go check out 'The Little One' by sakiko of soleana … it really does melt my heart when I read this. You should to, if you want to die of cuteness.


	5. Dumped

Chapter Five

AN: So, does anyone want to draw me a cover for this? I don't really want to use the Con symbol. I will admit, I can't draw Transformers and I can't draw guys… -,- so yeah, I could only draw Kirstin… Just leave me a PM or review saying you want to do it.

Special thanks to _shoshanny_ for the support. *sniffles* it goes much appreciated.

-:-

The rest of the day was rather peaceful anywhere on the ship. Well, peaceful except when Starscream was yelled at by Megatron for failing to complete a task. So, yes, it was rather peaceful in terms of how days usually went aboard the Nemesis.

However, the next morning, waking up for Starscream was anything but peaceful. Kirstin had woken up early again, like she had the previous day, only this time had turned on music to wake herself up. The music wasn't peaceful and kind; that would've put her back to sleep. No, the music that she was currently listening to, her mother had once described as 'nails on a chalkboard', but was better known as Skrillex.

It was loud, it was obnoxious, it was _perfect_; at least in Kirstin's brain it was. Starscream groaned; why was the human awake this early again? "Will you turn off that racket?" he said, rather rudely. Kirstin humped, then turned on a different song. It was a German song, though it was heavily electronic. "Do you have _anything_ that isn't loud and obnoxious?" Starscream growled.

Kirstin looked up for a moment and thought. "You're not a morning person, are you? Anyways, I need to go shopping. Turns out I forgot something."

The Seeker growled. "What did you forget now?"

"Well, you can either let me go to my house and pick up things that I need, or you take me shopping. You choose." Kirstin crossed her arms in front of her. "Well, technically, it's only three things, but that's basically it."

Starscream narrowed his optics. There seemed something different about the human this morning, but what it was he couldn't tell. He walked over to the door to the room and opened it. "You wanted to go? Hurry up."

Kirstin glared at him. "Fine," she said then walked to the seeker. "Also, I want to go swimming," she said out of the blue.

"And what would that be," Starscream asked as they walked down the hall towards the flight deck. This time in the day, only a select few of Vehicons were awake, having finished the night shifts, returning to their quarters. To say they were surprised to see Starscream awake was an understatement.

"You know the liquid that makes up most of this planet, called water? We humans go in it and swim around in it. Most for recreational fun, but others use it for competition. We have special clothes designated for that activity, and I need to grab mine, plus my brothers'."

Starscream groaned. Whatever the act of swimming was, it sounded horrible and he was going to get Knock Out to take her where she needed to go. There was no way he was getting near the water.

-:-

The Nemesis was located surprisingly close to where her hometown was, so Kirstin and Starscream took all of half an hour to get there, pick up the items, and get back aboard the Nemesis. However, instead of taking her back to his quarters, Starscream dumped Kirstin in Knock Out's room, rudely waking the sleeping doctor.

Kirstin sat on the floor, legs crossed, arm supporting her head as Starscream explained what Knock Out was to do. _Well_, she thought, _might as well get Travis up and ready to go_. She left the two arguing mechs to find her brother stirring in his sleep.

She shrugged, having no mercy for her brother while sleeping, and started to repeatedly say his name. As he began to cover his head, she began to say his name louder and removed the covers and pillow. He finally sat up in bed, slightly disorientated. "What?" he said in a grump.

"Time to get up. Here's you swimsuit, get changed and then see me for your pass," Kirstin said to her barely awake brother, then walked out of his 'room'. She noticed that the two mechs were done fighting, and Starscream had left. She raised an eyebrow at Knock Out, who stared down at her.

"It appears I get to take you and your brothers swimming," he muttered, just so that she could hear. "Get yourself ready, we leave in two minutes." While Starscream and he had been arguing, he had gotten Breakdown up and had him wake Michael.

Kirstin nodded as she yawned, holding what appeared to be a bag of some sort. "'Kay, I'm ready." She yawned again, but this time made a high pitch noise to go along with it.

Knock Out just shook his head at her, and waited for Travis. "So, where exactly are we bridging to?" The human replied that they could just bridge to where they found them in the first place and drive from there. He then relayed the information to Breakdown, and then to Soundwave, who opened a bridge right in front of Kirstin.

She jumped out of the way, and crashed into her brother who had just exited his 'room'. "Watch it," he had grumbled at her, but it fell on deaf ears.

"What is that?"

Knock Out sighed, "A ground bridge. It lets us go anywhere on this planet. It's just a scaled down version of a spacebridge." He then transformed and drove to the two humans.

"I call shotgun!" Travis yelled, running to the passengers door. Kirstin grumbled as she walked over to the other side, intent on climbing in the back.

However, the front seat wouldn't lean forward, therefore not allowing her to gain access to the back. "Like to drive?" Knock Out asked her, mentally smirking as he monitored her reaction.

"I guess. But I'd rather you do it; it'd feel strange." Kirstin settled in the front seat, however, after Knock Out still refused to allow her access to the back seat. She crossed her arms as Knock Out drove through the ground bridge, still feeling slightly strange. The last time she had been in Knock Out, she sat where her brother was now.

It took all of one second to get from the Nemesis to her hometown, and when they arrived, they saw Breakdown with a very sleepy Michael waiting for them. "Alright, where to?"

"Go straight 'til you hit Gordon Drive; turn left and when you see a giant building called H2O, you turn into that place. Got it?" Knock Out simply drove, Breakdown following. It took them a few minutes to reach their destination, but when the humans got out of the vehicles, their spirits instantly were boosted.

Kirstin leaned against Knock Out's vehicle form. "I suggest you two activate whatever it is to make you look like one of us."

Activating their holoforms, Knock Out and Breakdown followed the three humans into the center, which wasn't populated at all. There was a counter on the wall at the entrance that showed how many people were using the fitness center, and the number read 56.

The two boys had already entered, using their passes to gain entrance. The two mechs, however, weren't allowed through unless they paid. Kirstin smirked, pulling out her wallet and giving the person behind the desk a twenty dollar bill to pay for their admission.

Once all of them were through, the three siblings handed their passes in for locker keys, and they walked to the family change room down the hall. "You guys need a locker?" Michael asked, "I'm happy to share mine."

The two mechs shook their heads, and in an instant, the two were dressed in swim short. The three kids rolled their eyes and went into changing stalls to change their clothes.

-:-

"Optimus, I've got a reading," a red and white mech said aloud, standing in front of many screens. A red and blue mech, much taller than the other, walked over.

"What is it, Ratchet?" he asked the red and white mech.

Ratchet made a face. "You might not believe this, but I've got two Decepticon signals, staying stationary, at a _civilian building_. Perhaps this is the best opportunity to teach those two glitches how to properly blend in," he said.

Optimus gave the smallest chuckle. "Are you referring to the twins, old friend?"

"Who else would paint Arcee bright pink and Bumblebee with green polka-dots?" Ratchet grumbled, setting the coordinates for the ground bridge. Said twins in question decided to show up at that moment. "I advise that you also bring Bumblebee along, Optimus."

The red and blue mech nodded and quickly commed for Bumblebee to join in their mission. Bumblebee beeped and whirred over the comm link, appearing shortly after.

"Autobots," Optimus started, addressing those before him. "This mission requires us to use holoform and vehicle form only, and do not engage the enemy unless there is no other option." Ratchet opened the ground bridge behind him. "Transform and roll out."

-:-

"Ugh, what _is_ this stuff?" Knock Out complained as his foot touched the water. "It's cold, it's wet and it feels strange." Breakdown hadn't had any complaints going into the pool; the water felt nice to him. The pool itself was strange; instead of the main pool with the designated lanes, they were in what was called the river run. It was a loop of water that was continuously pushed forward by jets inlaid in the walls. It was deep enough to swim underwater fully, for any length you desired, and at one point in it, there was a deep enough part to fully envelope someone as tall as Kirstin.

Knock Out sat on the top step that led into the pool, and Kirstin sat in the pool. She sent a glare at him before grabbing his holoform's wrists and yanked him into the pool when the lifeguard was busy watching her brothers and Breakdown.

"What was that for?" Knock Out nearly yelled at the human, who grinned at him. It was early enough that it was only their group in the river run. Most people who went to the fitness center this early in the morning went upstairs to the exercise room. The others were kids who had swimming lessons before school, and used the lanes up above. "This is absolutely horrible. No wonder Starscream didn't want to take you."

Kirstin punched him in the shoulder. "That's not nice."

"Wake up, we're Decepticons," Knock Out replied in a cold tone.

The human crossed her arms. "Fine, I won't teach you how to swim, then. Good luck, Knock Out," She said, then walked forward in the current a bit and swam beneath the surface.

Knock Out watched how fast one could move under water, and it surprised him. No, it was not as fast as a human running, but it was faster than walking around the pool. However, it being his first time, he chose to do just that.

Breakdown was having better luck; Travis turned out to be exceedingly patient while teaching the soldier how to swim, and within ten minutes, Breakdown had it basically figured out. The three were swimming around, talking and basically having a good time.

-:-

Team Prime couldn't figure out what the Decepticons could possibly want with a human recreational center. It just didn't add up. And although Optimus wouldn't put it past Megatron to target something like this, he couldn't find a reason to do so.

Bumblebee was the first to check out the situation; he parked his vehicle form a little ways away, and activated his holoform. Slowly, he approached the two Decepticons' vehicle forms and tapped on Knock Out's hood. Nothing. He did the same with Breakdown's hood, but still, no answer.

"**It looks like they are concentrated on something else,**" Bumblebee told the team, stepping away from the two Decepticons.

Optimus nodded at his scout. "We shall investigate further. Everyone, activate holoforms and proceed with caution into the building.

-:-

AN: Short chapter, yeah… my apologies. Wrist hurting and headaches… so yeah…


	6. Water Yuck!

Chapter Six

AN: Well, there's a poll up on my profile. Who do you want to be put in here that isn't in the Prime-verse? Sorry, they are all Autobots. I wanted to do more 'Cons, but my brain decided to quit so I couldn't think of any good ones aside from TC and SW : (

Thank you to everyone who's read it this far. I wuv you guys!

-:-

This was perhaps the worst day Knock Out had ever had. He was cold and wet, and the human femme wouldn't give up on getting him to try and swim. He stood at the deepest part of the pool, arms crossed, refusing to move from that spot. Kirstin was all but shoving him to get him to move, but nothing was working.

The human sighed in frustration; he wasn't going to move, and while she could be just as stubborn, she also saw a lost cause when there was one. Shrugging her shoulders, she dove under the surface and swam away from Knock Out, letting the mech relax just a little bit.

Reluctantly, he began to walk again, this time bending his legs so that he was constantly in the water. The air was cold when it hit the areas that had been in the water, and that was worse than being in the water itself. Either way, if he wanted to get out, he'd have to get to the stairs first.

He glanced over at his partner, Breakdown. The large mech seemed to be having _fun_ with the two young ones. _Fun_. Breakdown, having fun. He didn't expect him to find this fun, but then again, they were very different in many aspects.

-:-

The Autobots entered the pool area after being explained what to do by Agent Fowler. There were what appeared to be three pools, but only two of them were being used. However, they could only see into one pool, as the other, larger one was on a different level than the one right before them.

All of them noticed how there appeared to be a human standing in the water, grabbing his arms and looking miserable. One of the twins smirked, while the other spoke up. "If that's not a Decepticon, I don't know what it."

Optimus nodded in his holoform. "I agree, though we are still missing one." That was when Bumblebee pointed at Breakdown's holoform. The leader of the Autobots nodded once more. "Try to get them away from the humans without causing too much commotion."

The three younger Autobots walked into the pool, Bumblebee nearly crashing in. The twins got in, one which had blonde hair had a look similar to that of Knock Out, while the other, which had red hair, couldn't really care.

"Ugh, this stuff is horrible. It's bad enough when it falls from the sky, but humans actually collect it and go in it for fun?" the blonde shook his head in disgust.

His twin smirked. "It's not so bad, Sunny."

"Don't call me that, Sides," the blonde muttered as he walked into the pool even further.

Bumblebee just shook his head at the two. They had just arrived on Earth about a week ago, and Ratchet was already banning them from nearly everything in the base. He made his way to the one he assumed was Knock Out; who else would have a perfect look to him and have the same colour hair as his mech form?

However, they chose to go against the current of the river run, not knowing that it was actually pushing against them. As they reached Knock Out, the Decepticon looked just short of angry; most of it directed at the human femme. Bumblebee raised an eyebrow at Knock Out as he quietly beeped and whirred to get his attention.

When Knock Out looked up, he was caught off guard at the three Autobots standing there, and fell backwards into the pool, causing a loud splash. Breakdown noticed his friend go under and swam to help him, though it wasn't needed; the pool was shallow where he fell backwards.

Optimus decided that he would join; he wouldn't put it past the two Decepticons to try something, even in a populated building. "Why are you here?" he asked them, watching as two young humans swam up to Breakdown and Knock Out.

Knock Out gave Optimus a glare. "Should ask you the same question."

It got quiet between the two sides, eventually all of them glaring at one another. From across the pool, Kirstin noticed the glaring taking place and decided to see what was the matter. She swam up to the group underwater, and popped up right behind her brothers.

"There a problem, Knock Out?" she asked, taking a long look at those in front of them. A blonde and a redhead stood side by side, and other than their hair, they were identical. _Probably twins_, she thought as she looked at the other blonde, who seemed younger, perhaps her age, give or take a year. The last one had dark brown hair, and could've easily been the younger one's father.

Knock Out just ignored the human and kept on glaring. Kirstin shook her head, gently grabbing her brothers and putting them behind her. While Michael was one to fight for them when it came to a physical fight, Kirstin always had the upper hand when it came to a verbal fight.

"Can we help you?" she asked the Autobots, unaware that they were just holoforms.

Optimus looked over the situation before responding. "Are you aware of who you are with?"

Kirstin nodded. "Yup, this here is Knock Out, and that's Breakdown."

"And do you even know what they are?" Sunstreaker asked, earning a smack in the head from his twin.

The human's eyes narrowed. "Why? What do you want to know?"

The blonde twin laughed, somewhat viciously. "I'm surprised you're not dead yet. Decepticons aren't this nice; ever." This time, though, he managed to avoid another hit from his twin.

"They're a lot nicer than you are, that's for damn sure," Kirstin replied, almost glaring at Sunstreaker. "You must be the Autobots I've heard about; I thought you'd be taller."

The redhead twin smirked. "They've kept you in the dark, haven't they?"

"How so? I'm stuck in a room if one of them forgets me. Tell me, were you born annoying, or did it come from your twin?"

Optimus decided it was a good time to intervine. The twins weren't getting anywhere with the useless arguing. "Please, come with us," he said, directed at the three humans. "We wish you no harm, and you'd be safe with us."

"Um, no. I'm pretty sure Starscream would throw a hissy fit if he had to look for me before Megatron found out," she said. "At least, that's what I've deduced about him."

The twins stood there in shock, mouths agape. "Starscream." One said.

"With a human?" said the other.

Michael and Travis were getting impatient; they wanted to swim. So, as quickly and quietly as they could, they dove under the water and swam past the group standing in the middle of the river run. Their sister saw their heads pop up a little ways away, knowing full well where they were was her priority. These guys came second.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we came here to swim; at least most of us, Knock Out's being a prissy drama queen. I have no authority to boot you from the building, but I will call the lifeguard over for you guys not getting out of the way. They _do_ have the ability to call management and boot you."

She waited impatiently as the twins moved to one side, the other two began to walk to the stairs. Optimus turned to the twins, "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker. Stay here and keep watch." Sideswipe nodded and Sunstreaker groaned as Optimus and Bumblebee left the pool.

However, that didn't stop the two opposing sides from glaring at each other. "Look, none of you are thrilled. That much is obvious, but try to live with one another for the next half hour," Kirstin said, looking the two Autobots' holoforms in the eyes.

"Can't we just leave?" Knock Out grumbled.

"No, Breakdown seems to be having fun. And honestly, you could use something to be miserable about _besides_ your oh-so precious finish," Kirstin countered before swimming away, Breakdown following shortly after.

Sideswipe shrugged; he really didn't mind this water and swimming in it, so he too left, leaving Sunstreaker and Knock Out to glare at each other and their 'partner', feeling slightly betrayed.

Finally having enough, Sunstreaker walked to the stairs, exited the pool and sat down on the side, simply watching. Knock Out would've followed, except that would land him beside an Autobot. Instead, he saw that at the other end of the river run was a way to get out of the pool, so that was where he was headed.

Unfortunately, he never made it that far. About halfway to it, his human charge snuck up behind him underwater, and while surfacing, managed to make the largest splash possible. As the water fell back into the pool, Knock Out was left soaking wet, again, and wasn't to happy about the whole ordeal.

He spun around, only to discover that whoever did it wasn't there anymore. In truth, the moment Travis had splashed Knock Out and saw him visibly tense, he dove underwater and swam as fast and as far as he could to get away from him.

The closest person was Kirstin, and unfortunately, she had to bear the brunt of Knock Out's anger.

"Why would you do that? You know I despise this swimming, and yet you find it funny to make me even more miserable," Knock Out yelled at her, catching her off guard.

She stopped along the edge, which proved difficult given that a jet was positioned there. "I did no such thing, Knock Out. Yeah, it's fun to see you like that, but would you honestly think _I'd_ do that?"

"Yes," Knock Out grumbled, and continued walking towards the edge of the pool.

-:-

The rest of the time at the pool was fun for those in it, while the two sitting out decided to glare at one another. In the pool, Kirstin had decided that she should probably get to know Breakdown better, but seeing as neither were a great conversationalist, it quickly fell through. Instead, the two kept an eye on her younger brothers as they played around, occasionally including Sideswipe, much to Breakdown's displeasure.

Sideswipe proved able to play with younger kids fairly well, much to his twin's dislike. Even though they were on opposite end of the pool, Sunstreaker felt everything his twin did, seeing as they shared the same spark.

Finally, the three humans got out of the pool, dripping wet. Travis smirked as Knock Out all but ran over to them, glad to be finally leaving. Breakdown soon followed, leaving just Sideswipe in the pool all by himself.

He soon got out, too, but before he went into the changing room to 'change', he gave Sunstreaker a hug. His twin pushed him away with a look of disgust.

"Why would you do that?" he grumbled on the way into the room.

"You looked cold," Sideswipe said with a grin, then quickly looked around before switching off his holoform. Sunstreaker did the same, quickly driving from the parking lot. Sideswipe followed, asking Ratchet for a ground bridge.

"There's a crashed Autobot ship not far from your location. I need you to rendezvous with Bulkhead there to check it out. I'm sending the coordinates now," Ratchet said over the comm link, then the line went dead. Sunstreaker sighed as he and Sideswipe raced to the coordinates sent to them, completely oblivious to what the humans referred to as a speed limit.

Little did they know, that the moment the Autobot ship entered Earth's atmosphere, the Autobot inside had dropped their cloaking in order to attempt contact with any Autobots on the planet. It was all that was needed for Soundwave to eavsedrop and pull up a profile on the Autobot inside, matching the voice print to the owner.

Megatron grinned at his Communications Officer, then quickly dispatched Starscream and a squad of Vehicons to intersect the Autobot before Prime's team got to them first.

-:-

By the time Sideswipe and Sunstreaker arrived, they could see Bulkhead taking on two Vehicons at once, with three already offlined around him. Sunstreaker transformed and went to aid Bulkhead, while Sideswipe went after Starscream who was carrying an unconscious femme from the ship towards a ground bridge a little ways away.

He caught up to the flier in vehicle mode, then transformed, jumped, and landed in front of Starscream, scaring the Seeker. Before he could think, Sideswipe had taken the femme from his arms and was running away with her.

The seeker gave a noise of frustration, then fired two missiles consecutively at Sideswipe, the first one missing, the second one hitting the ground just behind one of his pedes, causing the frontliner to trip and fall.

Starscream ran for the femme on the ground, having no Vehicons left to assist him, but instead ran straight into Bulkhead's mace. In the meantime, Sunstreaker helped his twin up and the two grabbed the femme. They ran into a cluster of trees as Bulkhead beat Starscream back, so that the Seeker was forced to go empty handed into the ground bridge, it disappearing moments later.

"Ratchet, prepare sick bay," Bulkhead sent over a comm link. "Not sure what Screamer did, but the femme is unconscious." As a ground bridge opened up, the three could hear a faint 'finally' over Ratchet's comm link.

The twins walked carefully into ground bridge, making sure the Autobot they carried wouldn't fall. Bulkhead followed behind, making sure that there were no Vehicons left to jump them.

As the femme was laid on a medical berth by the twins, Ratchet began to ask around if any of the Autobots knew who she was. Unfortunately, no one knew who it was, leaving her name a mystery for the time being.

Sighing heavily, the medic began going over the femme's vitals, then scanned her for any internal damages, as she seemed fine on the outside. _Strange_, Ratchet thought, _she's physically fine. _"There's nothing physically wrong with her," Ratchet announced. "She's probably been put in an emergency stasis lock; that can be remedied soon enough."

He reached behind her helm and applied pressure to a certain area. The femme laying there onlined her optics reluctantly, but soon enough she was fully aware of her surroundings. Only two questions remained. "Where am I?" she asked.

At the same time, Ratchet stood beside her. "Who are you?"

-:-

AN: So, this Autobot femme is another OC, but I figured that she should be in there. I had intended to put her in her own story, but she just fit perfectly in this one, I said, why not?

Anyways, here are the ones that I'm considering:

Prowl (more like his animated reincarnation than G1... Ninja Prowl is pretty awesome)

Ironhide (Doesn't matter what verse he's from… Ironhide is Ironhide)

Blurr (Um…yeah. No explanations needed)

Jazz (Either way, he'll at least be mentioned)

You can also suggest one, but bear in mind that I've only had interest in G1, Animated, Prime (no duh), Fall of Cybertron and movie. Not that the others aren't great, just I've been short of time. They'll mostly serve as a background character, so yeah…

Either vote by the poll I have on my profile or by review. ^^ Please and Danke (thank you)


	7. Revenge

Chapter Seven

AN: Yay! Seven chapters of pure awesomeness. Haha, just kidding; though this one is probably one of my best ones so far ^.^''

So, down to serious business. I won't be able to write for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, seeing as I'll be about seven or eight hours away from my house. On an island. With no computer. So, yeah.

-:-

The femme on the medical berth looked at Ratchet in confusion. "Where am I?" she said again, looking around the rather small room she seemed to be in. It reminded her of how large her recharge room had been back on Cybertron.

Ratchet looked at her in confusion. Her optics were white, which often indicated that a bot belonged to a music and arts bot, which, while in the upper castes, was borderline with the middle castes. However, almost all Cybertronians had their optics changed to either blue or red, depending on what side of the war they were on.

There were a few exceptions, but it was uncommon to say the least. To get back to her question, he answered calmly. "You are on an organic planet called Earth. Do you have a name?"

"Yeah, it's Dropbeat, but you can call me Beat for short."

-:-

Starscream had, once again, failed Megatron; and, like before, paid dearly for it. By the time he had made it back to his quarters for nurse his wounds, Kirstin was waiting there, playing on her Xbox with her brothers via the internet.

However, when she noticed Starscream, she brushed her headset off her head. "What happened to you?" she asked, concern laced into her voice. All the Seeker did was growl at the human and ignore the question. Right now all he wanted was to be alone, but even that seemed impossible.

He sat on his berth and silently listened to the human's simple online game. He then heard her talking, but there was no one else in the room. Slightly confused, he looked over at her to find that she was talking on a mic. Content with his answer, he laid down on the berth, allowing his systems to take care of most of the injuries he had. He would, however, have to see Knock Out about the tear in his wing, as it stung every time he moved them.

The three humans, also accompanied by Knock Out, were playing a multiplayer racing game. While they were together in a game and talking, they weren't in an actual party, and therefore their conversation could be heard over the internet to the others who were randomly playing with them.

Travis and Knock Out were playing split screen, and it was proving to be harder than the red mech originally thought. He had a limited view of his surroundings, not like when he had played before while Travis watched.

As someone bumped his car in the game, Knock Out yelled, "Watch the paint!" Travis' mic picked it up, and the other racer replied.

"Sorry dude, but this _is_ just a game."

A definite feminine snicker could be heard from the mic as Kirstin heard the exchange. Typical. Knock Out snarled, but easily went ahead as he hacked into the game and sped his car up exceedingly and won the race in a matter of seconds.

Travis turned to Knock Out. "You're gonna get me banned if you do that again." The red mech simply shrugged and walked off, leaving Travis to sign out the guest account then invited the others to a party, so they could talk freely. "Michael, does Breakdown want to play?"

"He's off on a mission, remember?" his brother said through the mic. "Kirstin, is Starscream there?"

Their sister rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he is. I doubt he'd touch a piece of human technology. Only when he's in a good mood he helps me get up and carries me around. Most of the time, I have to walk. Plus, he's not in that great of shape. Have any friends online?"

There was silence for a minute as the other two checked. "I've got one, but I don't remember adding this person," Michael said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I've also got someone I don't remember," Travis added, checking out their profile.

Kirstin then checked, to find she had someone that she too didn't remember adding. "Me too… What's their names, guys?"

"It's just a string of numbers for me," Michael said.

"Same here," Travis said, making a strange face that left Knock Out slightly confused as the mech went through some medical data pads.

Kirstin sat there; she too had the same friend. "I'll send them a message; see if they respond and are worth keeping on the list. If not, delete them." She quickly sent a message apologizing before asking who they were.

A minute later, she had a reply, though it wasn't what she expected. The reply read: 'Soundwave: Superior to organics. Subject: Games.' Kirstin snorted; she had met Soundwave for a brief moment, and according to her brothers, he only communicated with voice recordings.

"Well, this one is probably better to keep than delete," she told her brothers. "It's Soundwave, that much I _do _know; though what he's doing playing games, I can't even fathom."

"Kirstin, look at his gamer score; he hasn't _played_ anything," one of her brothers informed her.

Across the warship, Soundwave inwardly smirked; had they expected to be online and _not_ have their every movement watched? He also was monitoring their Xbox Live party, though what they said through there was mostly just random babblings about the game they were playing.

He was slightly surprised that the human femme was just as good, if not sometimes better, at the shooting games. Well, better if she had an explosive weapon or a long ranged weapon. As he monitored the three humans, he was able to figure out how they interacted with one another and how they fought.

The game that they had switched to had them fighting other humans from around the globe, and the way it was, there were many different weapons to choose from. The human femme had something called a rocket launcher, standing at a fair distance from the main fighting. There were various vehicles scattered around the map, but her main focus was anyone that got too close to her brothers, whose nametags she kept a constant eye on.

The two human mechs were better suited for close range. The older one grabbed the game's version of a shot gun, which had the poorest range aside from a sword, while the younger grabbed a hammer that appeared before him.

However, while watching her two brothers, Kirstin failed to watch her radar and see the upcoming threat. Just before the other person's character was able to shoot her, she spun around, saw the threat and fired a rocket, killing the other, but managing to survive the blast.

Throughout the game, she pulled that particular move a few more times before her weapon ran out of ammunition. As she was switching weapons, someone saw this as an opportunity, and took it. However, just before she died, Kirstin managed to stick her attacker with a glowing blue grenade, thus killing him as well.

Michael and Travis, though they hated it at times, stuck together the entire match, watching each other's back. Their sister had picked up a sniper rifle, and was currently hiding out in some rocks, far away from the heat of battle, but effectively shooting anyone that her brothers didn't get.

All in all, they made a fairly good team, and Soundwave was able to see that almost instantly.

-:-

A while later, the Nemesis was oddly quiet. Barely any of the Vehicon workers were talking amongst themselves, Knock Out was quietly checking himself over, and Starscream, for once, wasn't complaining. Kirstin was quietly learning how to read Cybertronian, Michael silently doing quests on Runescape, and Travis was sitting against the wall of the medical bay, playing his DS with headphones in, so not to disturb Knock Out.

All in all, it was due for something loud to happen, but that never came, until Kirstin decided it was too quiet. She turned on her music on her computer beside her as quietly as she could, and then occasionally raised the volume of it until it was as loud as she dared go; she didn't want to blow out her speakers just yet.

The seeker that was beside her glared at the electronic device that blasted the music, before reaching over and forcing it shut. It took a second, but the music stopped, much to Kirstin's dismay. "You don't like music?"

"Not when it's unexpected and obnoxious," Starscream said, returning to looking over strategies.

Kirstin crossed her arms, "Well, _sor-ee_." The seeker growled at her, only making her respond with a snappy "What?"

"What your tongue," he said threateningly.

"Why should I?" she challenged, seeing how close she could get before she crossed a line. The line, however, tended to vary, given Starscream's rather volatile and random nature. "What would you do?"

Starscream picked her up, eliciting a 'Hey!' from her, brought her over to the door, opened it and placed her in the middle of the hallway. He wasn't getting any work done with her in there; she was distracting enough when silent, the music just making it worse.

Kirstin looked around. It appeared as though she had crossed the line; not that it mattered much. In fact, unintentionally, Starscream had given her the perfect opportunity for revenge. As far as she knew, they weren't supposed to lose the humans they were charged with watching. Therefore, she'd just hide out in a crevice, or perhaps run into a different Decepticon and convince then to help her.

She walked along the hallway, looking for a door to open; that was all she needed. Then, she could slip inside, and hopefully hide out in there for a while.

It took her a while to find a door that opened and that she could reach in time. Surprisingly, the doors closed rather quickly on the warship, and she found herself out of breath most of the time after failing to slip into a room.

She had been walking for some time; she wasn't too sure, but she knew it'd been more than half an hour. She sat down to rest a little; walking for a long time always tired her out and made her ankle hurt. That was one reason she hated shopping at more than one store, unlike other girls her age.

Unknowingly, she had sat down near the door to the bridge, and when the door opened, she jumped up in surprise. The bot who had excited the bridge, Breakdown, took notice and looked down fully at Kirstin. He was surprised at first, but then realized that she did have to put up with Starscream more than most. Speaking of which, where was he?

"Where's Starscream?" he questioned the human, adjusting his shoulder plating slightly, earning a hiss from behind him.

Kirstin shrugged. "He put me out in the hall, so I'm trying to hide on him when he looks for me. Mind if I hide out with Michael for a while?"

Breakdown nodded and bent over to pick up the human. As he did so, Kirstin saw something on his back and backed away. "Looks like you have a spider on your back, Breakdown."

"That's nothing," he said as he grabbed Kirstin quickly. He placed her on his shoulder as he began to walk away. However, no one expected Megatron to exit the bridge at that time, and when he saw Kirstin on Breakdown's shoulder, he called the soldier back.

Before he could reprimand Breakdown for something he didn't do, Kirstin quickly explained the situation to the warlord. Having heard the plan, he smirked and plucked the human from Breakdown's shoulder. While he rarely used psychological revenge over physical, he had to agree that the human was right for wanting revenge.

Megatron put the human on his shoulder plating, like Breakdown had, and went to inform Soundwave to ignore Starscream should he show up. He then began to wander around the halls with Kirstin on his shoulder, silence resting on them.

She eventually got sick of the silence and asked Megatron about the war that had ravaged their home planet, catching the warlord off-guard. However, he was more than glad to go into elaborate detail of the wars back on Cybertron.

He had eventually gotten off track, describing what life was like for him pre-war, with the gladiatorial pits of Kaon and the working class and what not.

Everything about Cybertron interested Kirstin; the way the castes worked, the gladiatorial matches, even the war. It was new, to her, and it was interesting. She noticed some of the similarities between the earlier days of the war and what was happening in the world right now.

What amused her the most was how, after everything that occurred, Starscream managed to keep his spot in the Decepticon ranks as Second in Command. However, before she could ask about it, she heard something behind them, which scared her, causing her to fall.

Megatron caught her in his servo, closing it then quickly turning around. There stood Starscream, an almost scared and frantic look on his faceplates. The warlord smirked slightly. "What's the matter, Starscream? Lost something?" Starscream's optics widened as he figured out that Megatron knew. Megatron's smirk grew wider. "And after I gave you specific orders that they were to be unharmed, and watched at _all_ times, Starscream. It appears you cannot handle even one small, little human." Starscream looked down as a sneer was cast in his direction. "I suggest you find her, and quickly. Soldiers tend to not watch their step."

From inside the servo, Kirstin was trying hard to suppress her laughter. This was better than hiding out with her brother for sure. Instead, she kept on snickering at Starscream's expense. When the seeker had stalked off, after trying to feed the leader a B.S. excuse on why he was searching for her, Megatron opened his servo, to reveal a laughing human femme.

"I wish I'd seen his face," Kirstin commented as Megatron placed her on his shoulder once again, this time heading towards the bridge.

Megatron had to hide his grin. "All in due time, human." The walk back to the bridge was silent, except for the occasional snicker from the human on his shoulder. _At least she shares a similar sense of humour_, the warlord thought as he entered the bridge, placing Kirstin on a control panel.

Kirstin looked around before asking "What time is it?" And instead of an answer, Soundwave simply walked over to her and displayed the earth's time that she was used to. What was displayed was 10:30 pm, and after realizing the time, her body took notice too. Although, it had only been an hour since she was booted out of the room, it had felt longer.

Her eyes started to get heavy, so she sat on the control panel and yawned. She sat cross-legged on the panel, supporting her head with one of her arms, the other supporting the weight of her leaning back.

Megatron could see that the human was tired, and even though he wanted to extend Starscream's punishment until the next day, he did need to have a semi-functioning instead of fritzing second in command for the next few days. He called Starscream to the bridge after making sure the human was still awake.

Kirstin saw Starscream enter the bridge, and gave him a rather sleepy smirk. "Took ya long enough," she said, then yawned.

Starscream narrowed his optics. "Where _were_ you?" He sent a glare at her, but it went by unnoticed.

"_That _will teach you to turn off my music without asking nicely," she said as Starscream grabbed her from the control panel. "And I'll do that again if you put me out in the hall again."

-:-

AN: Yay, Starscream bashing… I love doing that and honestly can't resist X3 So, what would you like to see from Dropbeat? She's a femme from the music industry back on Cybertron, and though she's young, she still is old enough to have been somewhat of a DJ before the war.


	8. The First Transformation

Chapter Eight

AN: Hey guys, I'm back! Well, I had a case of Zelda-needyness. Yeah, I get that every three to five months. But hey, I'm back. Okay, in the episode 'Project Predacon' I had two "aww, so cute" moments. One being when Raf was shown sleeping. That's just plain adorable. And second one was when Bee and Smoke were talking . :3 Adorableness right there, people. If you haven't seen it, why are you living under a rock? I don't have TV and I still see it, so internet connection = able to see it. No excuses.

-:-

It had been a week since Kirstin decided to get payback on Starscream for leaving her in the hall, and that week had been the Pit for him. The human he had to watch had gotten a bigger temper, shorter fuse and was snippy at everything said in her direction. Even when asked simply what she was doing, out of mere curiosity, she had snapped at Starscream to leave her alone.

He had learned very quickly to leave her be, until this attitude adjustment went away. The flier did not have the patience for dealing with an ill tempered human, so by the end of the week, he had requested that Knock Out watch her.

The medic, too, had a hard time trying to reason with her. However, the moment Kirstin had snapped at Travis for something small, Knock Out's human didn't take serious offence, like he would to anyone else. Instead, he walked away from his sister and started up his computer.

Knock Out, ignoring how his human treated the girl, decided to argue back and forth with her a little while later. He was met with snarky comments and rude retorts, much to his surprise. Over the time they had known the humans, he was under the impression that this one was more gentle than her brothers. And yet, here she was, being as mean as possible with words.

Finally having enough after twenty minutes of insults being exchanged, Knock Out threw his arms up in the air in defeat. "Travis," he nearly yelled, "What is wrong with your sister?!"

The human on the computer just grinned, almost giving it an evil look to it. He then explained how, once a month, females go through something that might cause them to have different emotions at times. Travis couldn't help but laugh at Knock Out's expression as he explained it in more detail when the red mech had a confuse look on his faceplates.

Knock Out looked at Kirstin, slightly more disgusted with humans than he was before. Kirstin simply smirked at him; she couldn't control it, no one could.

-:-

The end of the week yielded two momentous occasions. Well, momentous for certain bots, that is. The first one was that Starscream had decided to abandon the Decepticon cause; going who knows where. The second one, which brought Megatron back from a fit of anger, was that Knock Out claimed he had finally figured out the formula.

Without hesitation, Megatron ordered that the oldest be changed first, as she was most likely to have the most control should something go haywire. Knock Out only grinned at that order and dragged Kirstin to the med bay against her will; she wasn't ready to get changed.

She still had so many things she wanted to do as a human. But, she started an argument with herself on the way to the med bay. Yes, she'd miss out certain things, like, oh, say, getting married, but she'd be able to watch her brothers better this way. Plus, she _would_ get to turn into a vehicle, be it a land or aerial one.

When they arrived, Kirstin took notice that there was a table set up for her already, a few needles nearby, waiting to be of use. She didn't give a second thought about the needles, but instead hung her head and said in a somewhat quiet voice, "I love you, guys," indicating her brothers.

Little did anyone know, Lazerbeak was perched high above in the ceiling, recording the whole procedure for Megatron to watch. The Decepticon warlord knew it would be painful, but that's the price of war.

-:-

As soon as the two boys had heard, neither could stop worrying about their sister, which wasn't unexpected. Dealing with the worry, however, was different between the two of them. Travis couldn't stop fidgeting, while Michael would snap at Breakdown, who was watching the two humans while Knock Out did the procedure.

Breakdown had little luck in calming the humans down, and after a good ten minutes, he gave up and just watched them fret about. It was becoming amusing, but it didn't last long, as Knock Out commed him that he had finished and needed assistance moving Kirstin to a recovery berth.

Getting up as silently as he could, which was rather difficult, given that humans possessed rather acute hearing, he tried to sneak away from the two humans.

However, before he could make three steps towards the door, Travis looked at him by leaning back and dipping his head backwards so his head was upside down. "Where are you going?" he asked lightly.

Breakdown just stared at Travis for a moment; he had no idea what he should say. His stare wasn't helping either. He mentally hit himself; he was a Decepticon for Primus' sake, he shouldn't have to do this.

"Uh. I was, uh," he started, but was cut off by Knock Out over the comm link. And by the sound of it, his friend was getting impatient. Breakdown finally rolled his one optic and held out his hand. Michael and Travis climbed on before they were lifted up and carried out of the room.

-:-

Knock Out had tried to move Kirstin, but the femme had firmly refused to move. He assumed that she was in some degree of pain; she was curled up with no intention of doing anything different, and every time he went near her, she swatted him away.

He had to admit, from what he could she, she wasn't that bad looking of a femme. Not the greatest, but not an eyesore either. She had a dark purple plating, with neon blue streaks here and there. Her vital signs had checked out alright, but the only thing that was slightly off was that when she had tried to speak, all that came out was a few fragmented words and a lot of static.

After that, she had refused to talk, so he couldn't get anything out of her.

The door to the med bay hissed open, and Knock Out turned around, at first relieved that Breakdown had appeared, finally. However, he hadn't anticipated Michael and Travis tagging along, and they had to be dealt with before anything happened, otherwise he knew from experience that things would go downhill quickly.

He glared at Breakdown. "You had to bring them, didn't you? It would have been easier if they'd stayed behind."

Breakdown simply shrugged and put the two humans down on a counter. He then cast his gaze over to a berth, one which held an unfamiliar Cybertronian. That had to be Kirstin; he was pretty sure he knew most Cybertronians on the warship.

He walked over to her, but, like Knock Out, the moment he went to pick her up, she swatted him away. He narrowed his optic and gave a few seconds before attempting again, this time not caring is she hit him or not. He relocated her to a recovery berth, ones that were marginally more comfortable.

Michael and Travis stared at their sister in wonder and worry; she was one of them now. Travis was just glad she was alive, but Michael knew different. He knew his sister like the back of his hand; and never did she act this selfish. He knew that no matter what injury, physical or emotional, she'd try her hardest to help others first.

"Why is she like that," Michael asked Knock Out, as the red mech searched for a data pad.

However, the medic simply shrugged. "Probably in pain," he replied, and resumed his search.

-:-

Pain was the only real thing that registered with Kirstin for the first little while. After that, she heard Knock Out talking to her, rather loudly, she might add. However, when she went to answer, she could only produce a static noise and a few fragmented words. Plus, it hurt quite a bit.

She ended up curling up for comfort, but there was none to be found. She tried to escape into her mind, but the pain followed her there as well. When Knock Out tried to get her to moved, she just batted him away. When Breakdown tried the first time, she did the same thing. However, when he actually picked her up and moved her, he caught her off guard and surprised her long enough to move her without a fight.

By the time some of the pain had dissipated, she knew that some time had passed. She knew that her brothers had been there before, but had refused to leave. Now, there was no one in the med bay, not even Knock Out, who seemed to spend a great deal of time in it.

Slowly, she uncurled and sat up from the berth she was on. It wasn't terribly uncomfortable, but it was better than the floor at least. She glanced around, taking in her surroundings. Everything in the medbay seemed normal size now, not built for giants.

The coolest thing for her was that when she focused on something, on the side of her vision schematics of the object popped up and displayed basic information. Smirking to herself with self pride, she looked down at her hands; they were sleek and long, but not too much. She focused on a hand, and was surprised when what appeared to be the statistics of her hands popped up in front of her.

She twisted around, pleased with what she saw; she appeared to be a darker purple. At least she was her favourite colour. She took in her surroundings for a few more minutes before something blocked most of her vision, but at the same time didn't. It was rather annoying in Kirstin's opinion.

She quickly read it, which was basically telling her that her vocal processor was badly damaged. She knew that much, from the pain of trying to speak before. Perhaps Knock Out could fix that? Kirstin inwardly sighed as she readied herself to attempt standing.

Knowing Knock Out, he had to have some sort of reflective surface nearby. After stabilizing herself, she began her search for such a thing.

After rooting around the med bay for a few minutes, she found something that sort of resembled a mirror; it was right beside the buffer. Kirstin nearly face palmed at her own stupidity; of course it'd be there, he'd need to see what he was doing.

She took in her features; nothing to spectacular, but she did like what she saw, which was a bonus on her part, she thought to herself. Then she noticed her chest, where a Decepticon logo was emblazoned on it. She shrugged; she didn't mind it; it would keep her from getting attacked on the warship.

Kirstin set the mirror like item down and began to wander out of the med bay. The doors hissed open and shut as she exited the room, only to be stopped by a vehicon. "You're not allowed out, Knock Out's orders."

However, instead of listening, she just continued on her way, growling the entire time. It was a habit she had picked up a while ago while watching her favourite show. Ironically, the character in the show she picked up the habit from also couldn't talk, although he had gotten shot several times in the throat to render him incapable of speech.

Ignoring the vehicon trying to get her back into the med bay without using force, she continued on her way, not entirely sure where she was going. All she knew was that she should probably be quiet, as there were few vehicon patrolling the halls and no sign of any other life.

Walking around, she found that she had easily lost her way. Sure, she knew before the basics of the ship, but that was at a different angle. Now she looked down at things, instead of up. Well, at least she had gotten walking down without too much trouble.

She wasn't sure she could run if need be, but she highly doubted that at this time she would need to. Sighing inwardly, she continued on her way, wandering around the halls, occasionally bumping into a vehicon. Eventually she formed the idea that if she waited in the bridge, someone would eventually show up.

So, the next vehicon she ran across she asked for directions, feeling rather stupid for asking them. She knew the ship better than that, but couldn't recall anything.

When she finally reached the bridge, the doors to it hissed open, and she stepped in. To her amazement, Soundwave was still there, doing what appeared to be typing on a console. However, a moment later he turned around, and the two had a staredown.

Neither moved or made a noise; Soundwave choosing not to, while Kirstin couldn't, it'd hurt too much.

Kirstin stood there, looking at Soundwave. She wasn't as tall as him, that much was for sure. From across the bridge, she didn't need to look up, but she was sure that if they stood ten feet apart, she'd need to look up.

She crossed the distance slowly, not taking her optics off of Soundwave. As she did, she saw complicated schematics appear on his visor. She couldn't make them out, and had to wonder how Megatron did, but a moment later, a very tired and agitated Knock Out appeared at the doorway.

The red mech looked just passed annoyed, and gave Kirstin a glare. "You just had to get up, didn't you. Couldn't wait until morning, could you?"

Kirstin simply returned the glare and stood her ground. She wouldn't be pushed around; especially this late in the night.

Knock Out growled. "Fine, sleep in the bridge; I don't care."

Inside, Kirstin was laughing at this. While she was usually calm and a bit on the brighter side, if she was tired or in pain, she did get snappy and loved to annoy anyone who set themselves up for it. Silently, she walked over to Knock Out, casting one last glance at Soundwave, who had returned to the console in front of him. While she wanted to annoy Knock Out, she didn't really want to sleep in the bridge.

During the time it took to walk back to the med bay, Knock Out's mood got continually better. That quickly changed when he checked his internal clock. He was due to be up in half an hour anyways, so he would just stay awake. Growling, he walked into the medbay, Kirstin following soon after.

He sat the femme on a berth and quickly scanned her vitals. Aside from her vocal processor being fried, she was perfectly fine. "So, I see you can walk. That's good, at the very least. However," he said, pausing before hiding a smirk. "You shouldn't try talking again for a long time. Time might heal your vocals, but only if you don't stress it." He turned away and looked at the serum he had developed thus far. _Apparently,_ he thought to himself, _it's less ready than I thought. _

_-:-_

_AN: Wooh… okay, that's done and out of the way. So, yeah. Not in the greatest of moods seeing as my xbox might have died. Poop, and I wanted to play FoC. So, get to miss the big reveal of the new one either way. Might get to borrow one on Wednesday, and have to wait for a month to get a new one. TT-TT_


	9. Nah, Not That One Either

Chapter Nine

AN: Well, here's the next chapter. Hope you guys like it… I kinda dragged it, but hopefully something will make up for it.

-:-

While Knock Out had to be up just after the crack of dawn, he knew that Travis would and could sleep the entire day away. The human, having done that twice, was planning on doing that today as well. He knew his sister wasn't doing the greatest, but he knew from past experience that worrying endlessly wouldn't help anyone.

Michael also planned on staying in spot the entire day. However, he wasn't going to stay in bed. No, he decided that that day was to be spent in front of the TV and computer screens, where he played video games to his heart's content.

When Breakdown saw this, he just simply shrugged and went on his way to check on the energon mines currently in Decepticon hands.

Knock Out had Kirstin sit on a berth while he thought of a name for her. She couldn't go around and use her previous name; it was so… human. She needed a name; a good one. He tapped his fingers on a table while he thought. She was definitely not a flier; she had no wings. Plus, the wheels on her back were a dead giveaway that she was a grounder. She had a rather sleek design, one meant for speed rather than fighting.

He thought for a few more minutes, then a name popped up that he liked the sound of. "Nitrostrike," he said aloud, catching Kirsin's attention. "Well, do you like it? It's your new designation."

The femme on the berth thought it over for a moment; it had a sub meaning of speed, typical of Knock Out. But, nonetheless, she liked how it sounded. She nodded her helm slowly, wishing that she could talk. But, she knew that it wouldn't happen.

"Well then, Nitrostrike, shall we not keep Lord Megatron waiting any longer?" Knock Out raised an optic ridge as he led the way out of the med bay.

-:-

While Ratchet could handle young bots, handling them was easier when you didn't have two others contradicting everything you said. He sighed in frustration after trying, and failing, to explain events so far to Dropbeat. Every other sentence, either Sideswipe or Sunstreaker would interrupt and change it to their version.

He eventually gave up after a few more tries, telling the twins that if they were so keen on interrupting him, they might as well tell her.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker gladly told Dropbeat their version of the war, and in between their stories, they managed to get out information about the femme. For example, she was a former DJ, although a bit young, back on Cybertron. She mostly played at the underground clubs as that was where the Neutrals mostly went to relax.

She never had known her Creator and Carrier, and had been adopted as a sister of some sorts by someone that surprised everyone. Just after she had started to DJ at a rather lousy club, the Autobot known as Jazz was hired to teach her how to DJ properly, and the two had hit it off from the beginning. They became quick friends, and the two were known to DJ at the same time, and it usually turned out perfectly.

They acted very much like brother and sister, bickering at times, protecting the other at other times.

It was at this time that Optimus Prime walked into the main room of the military silo, and overhearing one of his more trusted allies mentioned, he was somewhat curious.

Dropbeat sighed. "Though, I haven't seen him in ages. I mean, siblings are supposed to protect one another, are they not?"

The twins looked at one another, then jumped when Optimus spoke up. "I was unaware that Jazz had a sibling," he said.

Dropbeat shrugged lightly. "Well, he adopted me as a sibling; I had no Carrier or Creator to care for me."

Optimus nodded and walked away to ponder on this for a moment. Sunstreaker just looked around the room, trying to find something to talk about to fill the silence. Sideswipe was doing the same thing, but the moment Bumblebee drove into the base with Raf, he got an idea.

"You don't have a vehicle form yet, do you?" Sideswipe asked, and Ratchet audibly groaned.

That caused Sunstreaker to smirk. "I mean, you probably won't find something as beautiful as ours," he started.

"But I'm sure there's a flashy car out there that'd suit you," Sideswipe finished. He turned to Ratchet and asked if he could fire up the ground bridge. Grumbling, the medic complied, if only to get the obnoxious twins out of the base so he could have some peace and quiet.

-:-

Megatron took in the femme that was presented before him by Knock Out. Her frame was obviously built for speed, that much he could tell. However, if the reports were correct, the other two humans would have to wait a little while longer to be cyber formed.

None the less, he could do with another who didn't speak. Those who did mostly got on his nerves most of the time, anyway.

He nodded approvingly at Knock Out for getting at least something accomplished. He then turned to Soundwave. "Open a ground bridge," he ordered, and Soundwave complied within seconds. He refocused on Knock Out. "Ensure that she finds an adequate vehicle form."

Knock Out simply grinned and nodded, then pushed Nitrostrike towards the ground bridge. The femme complied, quickly stepping through the ground bridge, Knock Out soon following.

When Nitrostrike took in her surroundings, she could easily tell by the types of trees that surrounded some parking lots that she was on the west coast of North America. She wasn't sure where, but she knew the trees were similar to the ones where she had visited previously.

She was also pretty sure that she was farther south than her last visit to the coast; the mountains were significantly smaller.

Knock Out tapped his chin plating and began to walk towards what appeared to be a populated town. Nitrostrike followed, and eventually settled down by sitting on a hill, waiting for the right car to pass by.

Both of them sat there for a while, Knock Out occasionally pointing out a vehicle. Nitrostrike kept turning them down, and then would return to watch them. Honestly, why didn't he just take her to a dealership? It would be faster, and easier.

After pointing out twenty or so more cars, Knock Out gave up. "The next sports car I see is the one you get. I'm sick and tired of you not liking anything I see." Knock looked onto the road, but saw nothing the he himself didn't like. He then looked across the road into a parking lot, and saw a car that would do. See that blue one across the lot?" he asked, pointing to it.

Nitrostrike nodded; she actually knew that is was a Lotus Evora, and even though it wasn't a Corvette, it'd have to do.

"Hmm, I'm not entirely sure you know how to scan a vehicle mode. I'll be back," he said, then transformed and drove down and stopped beside the blue car. Nitrostrike watched as Knock Out scanned the car, and the drove back to her. He took out a few cables from his subspace and attached them to Nitrostrike.

He then attached the other ends to himself, and began to force-download the trans-scan. It felt weird to both at the start, but as time quickly passed, the strange feeling went away.

"There," Knock Out said, subspacing the cables, "now you have a fairly okay alt mode."

Nitrostrike glared at him; she most likely would have cussed him out if she was able to, but unfortunately, she couldn't. Knock Out just simply rolled his eyes at the glare; she couldn't get to him that easy. "Knock Out to base; requesting ground bridge."

-:-

"That one?" Sideswipe suggested, pointing at a green Ferrari that passed by. They had been there for hours on end, and no matter what car they figured was flashy enough for Dropbeat, nothing seemed to catch the young femme's interest.

Sunstreaker had given up after the first failed half hour, going to instead drive around the town they were in to show off his vehicle mode. Sideswipe had stayed behind, and now he too was almost at his breaking point, which, having Sunstreaker for a twin, was very hard to get.

Dropbeat just shrugged at the next car pointed out to her. "Not me. Come on, there's got to be a car that'd suit my style."

Sideswipe huffed. "Well, this is what this planet can offer. Choose, otherwise I'll get Docbot involved." He rarely ever used Ratchet as a threat, mostly because he was _being threatened by Ratchet. This case, however, was an exception. _

_The femme crossed her arms. "Fine, I'll choose vehicle mode," she grumbled, along with a string of swears. However, the car that decided to show next left her far from grumbling. It was known as a Viper, and boy, did it look good. Dropbeat quickly scanned it while Sideswipe was watching the opposite direction for a vehicle, and transformed. _

_Sideswipe turned his helm, and was glad that she had picked a semi-decent alt mode, finally. It had gotten to the point where Dropbeat would point out rust buckets, just to elongate the time spent searching for a vehicle mode. But now they could return to base. _

_When they returned, the moment the three stepped into the base, the twins briskly walked off down a hall, trying to get as far from the crowd as possible. While they did love attention, Sunstreaker needed to cool off; even though it was Sideswipe dealing with Dropbeat before; one of the curses about being a split spark twin. _

_Ratchet closed the ground bridge, then turned to Dropbeat, as well as Arcee and Bumblebee. "Did you manage to scan an vehicle mode?" the medic questioned. Dropbeat nodded and transformed, causing Ratchet to sigh; he knew he should've expected the twins to help her find the flashiest vehicle on the road. _

_Dropbeat returned to her bipedal mode, then went to talk with Arcee. While she didn't like to admit it, she did need to know how to drive by Earth's customs, so she would cause as little stress as possible. Arcee had told her before that Jack would be the safest bet when it came to learning about driving, and now Dropbeat was taking her up on that. _

_-:-_

_It took mere seconds for everyone on the Nemesis to figure out that Airachnid and Nitrostrike hated each other. One snaky comment said by the spidery femme directed at Nitrostrike caused an all out brawl on the bridge while it was only occupied by vehicon. _

_The moment the comment was said, Airachnid didn't expect an instant comeback; she was used to almost everyone she met being spineless compared to her. Nitrostrike clenched her fist and punched her square in the helm, surprising the Vehicons working in the room. _

_Airachnid was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered, transformed into her spider-like appearance and swiped at Nitrostrike with a few of the legs. One leg caught Nitrostrike off guard and tripped her, causing her to fall to the floor. _

_Seeing the opportunity, Airachnid went to move in to pin down the other femme, but it didn't work quite as she wanted it to, and instead was knocked backwards. _

_Nitrostrike popped up off the floor, jumped upwards, accidentally activating her cannon. Seeing this, when she pinned Airachnid to the floor, she pointed the cannon to her helm. _

_However, one thing the younger femme forgot to take into account were the many limbs that Airachnid had. She was easily thrown off of the spidery bot, only to find herself pinned to the floor. _

_By that time, a few panicked Vehicons had contacted Megatron, who, now in a bad mood, stormed towards the bridge. When he arrived, he saw Airachnid pinning Nitrostrike to the floor, two of her talons close to the helm of the other, while Nitrostrike was careless trying to point her cannon at Airachnid, but failing miserably. _

_The warlord yelled at the two to stop, but neither paid any attention to him; they were bent on killing each other, it seemed. Megatron groaned, then ordered a pair of Vehicons to separate the two. _

_Once standing, the two glared at each other while Megatron questioned what provoked the fight in the first place. Airachnid, seeing this as an opportunity to get out of trouble, quickly explained her version, in which Nitrostrike attacked, unprovoked, making her fight back. _

_However, with one side glance at Nitrostrike's face, Megatron was reassured that the spidery femme was downright lying. However, he didn't let either catch on, and instead continued on by reprimanding Nitrostrike, then went to reprimand Airachnid. _

_Nitrostrike took what the warlord said in, but she was silently plotting the demise of one spider bot, as well as hoping her vocals would fix themselves. _

_-:-_

_AN: So, whatchya think? That may have been the only fight scene I've written that I've liked. So, Kirstin is now Nitrostrike, and shall be referred to as such for the rest of the story, I think… Hmm… Suppose I should think of pairings for two or three of the charracters, shouldn't I?_


	10. Arrival

Chapter Ten

AN: So… that ending. Man oh man… I cried. Caution, time jump. I had no other inspiration, that and the ending of the series… well…

T-T Soundwave's fate is by far the worst D'|

Two chapters in one day to make up for everything. Love y'all for reading this.

-:-

Months passed, the Decepticons winning some battles, and losing others. However, with their most recent victory, the destruction of the Autobot's base, the three siblings were finally getting the hang of being on the Decepticon side of things.

Whilst the two boys had yet to be changed into Cybertronians, Nitrostrike, formerly known as Kirstin, had managed to gain back her voice, much to her excitement. In fact, many things had happened in the past month or two that had her more cheerful than before, like Airachnid being locked in a stasis pod, only to be found in the wreckage of the Autobot base.

However, with her voice back, she could finally start giving orders, something she had longed to do. While she was usually laid back and let others lead, she was, and always would be, the oldest of the siblings. She was used to having to order her brothers around to get simple tasks accomplished, and when she was given a group of Vehicons to command by Megatron once her voice returned, it had come second nature.

She no longer had to assist Knock Out in the med bay, where she had spent many of her hours aboard the warship.

Michael and Travis were relieved when they heard their sister's voice once again, only to fondly remember the silence as she started to yell orders to the Vehicons.

Travis still tried to help Knock Out in the med bay, but with everything that had come to pass, he felt more useless than useful, so he tried to hang out with Soundwave, who at first was neutral to the youth staying with him, but eventually let him learn a bit of Cybertronian.

Michael had a new guardian, more or less; Starscream. In fact, Starscream was his third guardian; Breakdown had fallen to the spidery Airachnid, and while a new bot had come aboard, Dreadwing, he too was dead, having tried to kill Starscream and went against orders.

However, Breakdown was still Michael's favourite guardian; mostly due to the fact that he was around more so than Starscream or Dreadwing. But now being stuck with Starscream, Michael could see why Kirstin had a distaste for the SiC.

With the Autobots scattered and their leader dead, that left the Earth for the Decepticons to take over, which Megatron was currently planning.

-:-

After making sure that her brothers were safe with somebot, namely Knock Out, Nitrostrike made her way to the bridge. However, being at the opposite end of the warship, she had a little walk ahead of her; one she would have preferred to do alone, but instead she ran into her least favourite on the ship, Starscream.

"And where are you off to in such a hurry, Nitro?" the seeker almost purred, sending shivers down Nirtrostrike's spinal strut.

"Lord Megatron has summoned me to plan an attack, I'm sure you're heading the same way, Screamer?" the femme replied, using a nickname she knew annoyed the flier.

Starscream growled, "Don't call me that. Remember, you report to _me_ for anything."

The femme looked at him. "And yet here we are, both heading to the bridge. Curious, is it not?" she asked, eliciting another growl from the flier. "How was it, Starscream, to be inches away from 'joining the Allspark' as you say? To be nearly wiped from existence?"

"Like you would know," he replied with a mumble.

"You think I don't? If I remember correctly, my brothers and I were taken from our world, exposed to the real world that few knew or would believe, watch it scorched, burned, destroyed, and are forced to change species? The first while I was certain of death; and while that feeling has calmed, it has, nor ever will, disappear."

"Yes, changing species does sound 'dangerous'," Starscream said, his voice impossible to tell if sarcastic or not. Nitrostrike took it as sarcasm, stopped and slammed her fist on the wall, causing the seeker to jump. "What was _that_ for?"

Nitrostrike looked him square in the optic, but said nothing; she didn't need to in order to convey the message.

However, Starscream quickly turned the situation around so he would end up victorious. " You pretend to be strong, but inside I know exactly what you are; weak, pathetically so. You may claim to have done things, but when were you truly alone? You operate well with your brothers, but take them away, and you're nothing but a weak, useless femme incapable of accomplishing anything."

An evil smirk spread across his faceplates as an idea formed in his mind. "Shall we test this out, as you're clearly one for proven strategies?"

Nitrostrike's optics widened. "You wouldn't dare," she nearly whispered, before pulling out her weapon.

"Ha! You expect to defeat me with that puny thing?" Starscream taunted, for indeed, Nitrostrike's weapon was very light; she had yet to get the upgrade Knock Out was currently working on for her.

By then they had reached the doors to the bridge, but that didn't stop the two from breaking into a fight, just before the doors opened.

When Megatron caught sight of them, he growled and walked over to the two, separating them. "I will not have two of my commanding officers fighting, risking the safety of those aboard, like last time!" he yelled at the two, who stood frozen in fear. "Starscream, what do you have to report?"

It took a few seconds and a painful nudge from Nitrostrike to get the seeker out of his fear induced stasis. "No signs of Autobots so far, Master. Perhaps if more ground troops were patrolling, we may have a better chance at-"

"Of course, you have to turn this to me," Nitrostrike narrowed her optics at the flier. "The ground troops are already stretched thin enough as is. There just isn't-" She was cut off by the evil glare she was receiving from Starscream. "Why you little-" She held her fist back as if to punch the flier.

"Enough!" Megatron said, causing the two to turn their attention back to him. "If I see any more fighting amongst the two of you, I will take more permanent measures. Do I make myself clear?" He looked at the two of them. "Starscream, scramble your armada and search again. Nitrostrike, remain here."

Starscream almost looked hurt as he grumbled on his way out. Nitrostrike smirked, then turned to Megatron. "Sir?"

"Knock Out is taking a search group to Cybertron to recover anything they can. You are to accompany them to help with the search. Do not disappoint me again, or I do believe you know the consequences."

The femme just bowed and walked out of the room to go find Knock Out and get this task over with. She didn't have to travel very far before she stumbled upon the red mech, a few vehicon and surprisingly, Soundwave.

"Soundwave is coming too?" she asked, only to nearly get smacked upside the helm by Knock Out.

"Of course not, you daft femme," the medic replied. "He's going to open a space bridge," he said, as if everyone in the world knew.

Nitrostrike snorted, until a space bridge opened a foot in front of her, startling her and causing her loss of balance. It was Knock Out's turn to smirk and laugh as he led the troops through the bridge, with Nitrostrike bringing up the rear.

-:-

Cybertron was a barren place, at least that's what it appeared to be to Nitrostrike. A large, barren wasteland, unable to host any form of life. "Why are we here again?" she complained while rummaging through rubble. "And what am I looking for?"

When she received no reply, she looked up. "Knock Out. Would you mind telling me what I'm-" She was cut off when something appeared on the horizon, the same thing that had rendered Knock Out speechless. The thing was approaching quickly, and the only thing that made sense was a Cybertronian in vehicle form.

"I thought you said this place was deserted," she said, curious at the approaching form.

Knock Out, however, stood still and muttered "by the Allspark" as it drew closer. When the object finally stopped before them, it transformed into a one-optic purple mech. "Shockwave, but how did you- this is wonderful," Knock Out said with a grin, he finally didn't have to be the ship's scientist anymore.

Nitrostrike had had it of being ignored. "Can someone explain to me who that is and how everyone said there was no life here, yet someone obviously is living, and is here?!"

Knock Out rolled his optics. "This is Shockwave, the Decepticon's lead, and best, scientist. Perhaps now your brothers can join you."

The femme looked at Knock Out. "So, someone who's actually competent when it comes to science and experiments?" The red medic looked at her with a glare, but she was already calling in a space bridge, thus ignoring Knock Out.

The bridge opened before them, and after the medic and Shockwave went through, the rest of the group went through, with Nitrostrike once again bringing up the rear. After exiting the portal, Nitrostrike walked ever so silently to stand with Starscream, who she noticed was scowling at Shockwave.

"So, what's the matter, Screamer? Don't like him?" she asked the flier.

Starscream just made an even uglier face before approaching Megatron and Shockwave. The femme just shrugged and walked off to find her brothers, as Knock Out had clearly put them somewhere before departing; there was no chance the medic would take leaving the humans alone in the med bay.

However, before she could leave the top of Darkmount, she heard an unfamiliar voice call her name, so she could only assume that it was Shockwave. She turned around and looked at the purple mech. "Yes?"

Shockwave walked over to her, paused beside her, then continued past her. "I require your assistance in the lab, you have been reassigned to there for the time being; therefore you report to me."

Inside, the femme was doing a happy dance. "Finally, no more Starscream," she said, a little too loudly, so that everyone heard her as she left, following Shockwave. It was silent as the two walked through the halls of Darkmount, until Nitrostrike broke it. "So, what's up first?"

"I am required to complete the formula I created long ago for cyber forming living organic matter. It is my understanding that you have two brothers, and works similar to a seeker trine."

"Seeker trine?" Starscream was a seeker, wasn't he, Nitrostrike thought to herself as she walked to steps behind Shockwave.

Shockwave stopped before a door, which slid open in response. "I advise that you ask Starscream, as he was part of one once." He paused for a moment. "I require the formula from Knock Out's lab."

"Alright, I'm on it," Nitrostrike said before walking out the door. However, a few feet down the hall she groaned; anything you need was always scattered around Darkmount and the warship. It took a while for anything to get done; there was very little organization there.

It took her ten minutes to reach Knock Out's med bay, which was empty when she arrived. "Now, where could that formula be?" she muttered to herself as she began to look for it. After five minutes of searching, she had yet to find it. "It's not here," she said aloud, grumbling to herself.

"Oh, you mean this?" Knock Out said, stepping out from the entrance, holding a jar with liquid in it. "Whatever could you use this for?"

"You know very damn well why I need that; Shockwave needs to finish the formula so my brothers can-" She never finished her sentence though, because a moment later, Knock Out dropped the jar, effectively shattering it and spilling the contents on the floor.

Nitrostrike stood there, optics wide and mouth agape. "What did you do?!"

"Simply put, I bought them more time. You were unconscious when you were cyber formed, but apparently that didn't stop you from screaming as loud as you could. You thought that your voice loss was a defect because of the formula, but in actuality, you broke your voice by yourself from yelling so much. The formula was nearly complete, and stable enough to have a small chance of success, which it did.

"You've barely spent an hour with your siblings since then; have you any idea what they think of the procedure? They are terrified of it."

The femme stood there in silence, confused. "Knock Out, why should you care about my brothers? I thought you hated humans with a fiery passion?"

Knock Out grit his denta. "I do, most of them."

"You actually care about my brothers?"

The red medic scowled, he had been caught. "What can I say, the older one knows his automobiles. And it's not just that. I've seen family units torn apart before because of this war, and the outcome is never pretty."

"Outcomes of any war are never pretty, Knock Out. So, what should I tell Shockwave? I slipped and fell and it broke?"

Knock Out shrugged. "You're not that graceful in the first place, so that would work."

The femme just glared before leaving the med bay to report back to Shockwave, leaving Knock Out all alone. Once she was gone, the medic sighed, "That had been close." In fact, he couldn't care less about her brothers, at least while they were human.

No, it was something else, something he enjoyed having to himself without the thoughts of siblings interrupting _her_ thoughts.

-:-

AN: ~o,o~ um… yeah. Hey guys, not dead, see? The ending was just so…. Amazing spectacularly SAD. Buckethead kicked the bucket… T-T He was so… awesome. Well, we'll just have to see what happens in the next few days with that epilogue movie thingy.


	11. Conversion

Chapter Eleven

AN: Haha! So, two chapters in one day to make up for my leave of absence…

Anyway, no need to read that. ^-^ enjoy the chapter, please?

-:-

Shockwave wasn't pleased with the failed attempt to retrieve the formula, but none the less, got to work replicating it. He was, however, wary of how clumsy Nitrostrike could be, and told her to go assist somewhere else in the citadel, until he needed her assistance.

Grumbling, the femme stalked out of the lab, unsure of where to go. She could see if Knock Out needed some help, but she was just there, and the most she would end up doing was perhaps helping him buff his armour.

She didn't want to go find Starscream for something to do; that would be showing that he wins, at whatever game he was playing inside his mind. Megatron was always an option, there was a high chance that he needed something done.

Then again, while she was told to assist someone else, she could always go see her brothers. It was true she hadn't been spending a great deal of time with them, but once she became as useful as she could be, she was constantly busy.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't watch where she was heading, until she bumped into someone, causing her to fall backwards and crash on the floor. She looked up, and instantly fear settled inside her; she had accidentally bumped into Megatron.

"Why are you not with Shockwave?" the warlord asked, looking at the femme on the floor.

Nitrostrike picked herself up off the ground. "I was deemed too clumsy while performing a task, so I was sent to search elsewhere to assist."

Megatron appeared to almost say something, but his comm link interrupted him. Nitrostrike looked at the Decepticon leader, trying to figure what was going on. Then a wicked smirk appeared on his faceplates as he replied to the comm link.

He then turned to the femme before him. "I would advise that you bring your brothers to Shockwave's lab, as they are needed." He watched as fear appeared on her face, but nonetheless the femme walked off at a brisk pace in search of her siblings.

-:-

To Nitrostrike's surprise, they weren't in the bridge, where she thought they'd be. In fact, they were in their separate rooms; or rather, in Knock Out's room and Starscream's room.

She went to retrieve Travis first, who jumped for joy at seeing his sister, until he saw the look she gave him; he knew something was wrong. As he climbed into her servo, she brought her brother to her face, "I'm sorry," she said, then allowed him on her shoulder as she made her way to Starscream's quarters to fetch Michael.

Once there, she knocked on the door, which slid open to reveal an agitated Starscream. "What could you possibly want?"

"Sorry, Screamer, but I'm here to pick up Michael. Shockwave wants them."

At that, the seeker gave an evil grin. "At last, no more humans." Meanwhile, Michael walked out and noticed the look on his sister's face. Nitrostrike picked him up and placed him on her other shoulder.

She turned away and headed towards the lab, slowing her pace as much as she could. "Whatever happens in there, I'll be there as soon as I can, if not all the way. I promise," she said, breaking the silence.

"What's happening?" one of her brothers asked, but even Nitrostrike couldn't answer with sarcasm, she was that worried.

"Something," was all she ended up saying as she neared the lab. As she entered, she noticed a place for each of her brothers, so she set them down and turned to Shockwave. "Should I stay, or-"

Shockwave turned to her. "This procedure will most likely elicit a negative emotional reaction from you. It is my suggestion you find yourself elsewhere during this."

Nitrostike gave her brothers one last glance, then quickly exited the lab and walked as quickly as possible so she could get out of earshot. She didn't want it to show, but she was on the brink of tears, or whatever Cybertronians leaked when they cried.

She wasn't even sure she could make it back to her quarters without letting a few tears fall. She kept up her pace as she tried to get to her room as quickly as she could without seeming suspicious, which, on the Decepticon warship, was nigh impossible.

Nonetheless, she managed to make it to the correct hallway, where she was cornered by Knock Out. The red mech immediately noticed the look in her optic, and her emotional state was confirmed by the small quivering she was making.

"And what seems to be troubling you now?" he asked, as if concerned. Deep down, he _was_, but he would never show that to anyone.

"I don't know, my brothers are about to be cyber formed, I'm on the verge of breaking, I'm scared for them and myself, and to top it off, no one on this damn planet seems to give a damn about anyone else!" Nitrostrike yelled, causing Knock Out to flinch having not expected that reaction.

The medic shrugged. "If you want, I do have some sedatives in my med bay. We could-"

"No thanks," the femme said bitterly, "I'd rather not."

"Why not? It won't harm you and it will relieve you from going through emotional stress."

"I _don't _need it, Knock Out."

"And I'm the doctor here, so I say yes, you do."

"No," Nitrostrike said, crossing her arms.

Knock Out rolled his optics before quickly reaching over and sedating the femme. "I'll have to refill that later," he noted to himself before dragging Nitrostrike to the med bay. Once there, he left her on a berth and walked briskly to Shockwave's lab.

Once he entered, he notice two mech unconscious on berths. Apparently Shockwave had finished, and was now cleaning up. "So," the medic started, "how'd it go?"

"It proceeded as expected, finishing on time," Shockwave said without looking at the medic. "Where is Nitrostrike, I require her assistance."

"Ah, see, she fell and knocked herself out."

Shockwave looked at Knock Out, sending chills down the medic's spine. "While your answer is most logical, it is also logical that you are lying."

"Now why would I do that?" Knock Out asked, pretending to be offended. "Simply put, that femme is a near walking disaster."

"Logic dictates that that is not the whole truth," Shockwave said, entirely correct. Nitrostrike wasn't very coordinated, but she wasn't a 'walking disaster' as Knock Out put it.

The two mechs stared at one another, barely noticing one of the brothers waking up. He sat up on the berth, looking at his crimson and orange arms. He looked over to Knock Out and Shockwave, noticing the tension between the two.

He went to intercept the two, but the moment he tried to stand, he lost his balance and fell on the floor. However, that was all he needed to break up the two mechs, and causing their attention to turn to him.

"Hmm, looks like you have work to do, Shockwave," Knock Out said, before leaving.

Shockwave watched the medic leave before approaching the brother on the floor. "I suggest we give you a new designation, as to not confuse others."

The brother had stood up and was working on his balance, "Okay," he said. The brother who had fallen was Michael, who only had one thing on his mind; I am free. Indeed, he was free in a sense from a chronic medical condition he had as a human.

The other brother, Travis, had yet to awaken, which worried Michael slightly. He turned to Shockwave, "Am I going to have to think of it myself?"

"It would be best," Shockwave answered, walking over to check on Travis. Indeed, the younger one hadn't woken yet, but all of his vitals were fine.

Michael looked deep in thought as he tried to be creative, though it definitely wasn't his strongest suit. He preferred facts and things that had happened, while his sister was the one with the creativity. He took into account the colour of his armour, and tried his best.

After much thought, he settled on the best one he could think of. "Fireblaze," he said aloud, catching Shockwave slightly off guard.

"That is your new designation you have chosen?" The mech on the berth nodded. "Very well. I advise you go find Knock Out for a proper scan before you report to Lord Megatron."

Fireblaze, formerly known as Michael, stood from the berth and walked, awkwardly, out of the lab to go find Knock Out. It wasn't easy navigating, he now saw the warship and Darkmount from an entirely different angle.

However, he managed to find his way to the med bay, where he saw his sister unconscious on a berth. He narrowed his optics in search of Knock Out, which meant answers.

He found the medic moving some data pads aside to get to his buffer. "Knock Out, why is she unconscious?"

The medic turned around. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd stop by. Don't worry, she's merely been sedated as the thought of you two being cyber formed was too hard on her."

Fireblaze narrowed his optics. "Somehow, I don't believe you."

"Believe it or not, it is your choice. Now, just stand still for a moment," Knock Out said as he scanned the new Cybertronian. He quickly looked at the stats, then actually took time to look at him. He had a much bulkier build than his older sibling did, and was just about the same height as Knock Out was. "Your vitals are perfectly fine, now I suggest you run along; Lord Megatron doesn't like to be kept waiting."

The new Cybertronian rolled his optics before slowly exiting the med bay. Knock Out sighed; he still hadn't come up with an answer as to why he was so drawn to Nitrostrike, which bothered him greatly. She wasn't overly good looking, something Knock Out was sure that he would care about. Though, now that he thought about it, he did enjoy it when she fought with others; it was amusing to him to watch.

Travis had just woken up, taking it slower than both of his siblings had before. Shockwave noticed this and deemed him probably the most logical of the bunch. "I advise you create a new designation for yourself," Shockwave said, startling the youth. "It would seem unfit to use your previous designation."

The youth sat on the berth exploring his appearance and his surroundings, suddenly everything was the right height. He appeared to be a icy blue, with darker blue lines dancing wildly across his abdomen. While Michael had not much creativity, Travis still had more than him, and thus, creating his own name was simpler than it was for his brother.

Shockwave looked at the smaller mech on the berth, he was definitely an aerial bot, if the wings on his backside were any indication. Perhaps this young one could help him where his elder sibling would not. "Have you decided on a designation?" The younger one nodded, then told Shockwave his name, Frostbite.

The purple mech simply nodded and finished cleaning up, setting up for his next project, something he needed to bring from Cybertron.

-:-

Megatron grinned as he saw both of the brothers on the bridge; he was hoping that this tightly knit group would perform better than the last one had, though it was namely Starscream's fault his trine had been broken.

The warlord looked the two over, assessing where they would best fit in. Fireblaze was heavier built, so he would most likely fit with the troops as an officer. From what he had heard from the others from time to time, this one had the knowledge of battles and strategy, something that would most likely be useful.

The other, Frostbite, was far lighter, and had the ability of flight. While aerial bots proved most useful against the Autobots, for none had the ability of flight, this one wasn't even built for that. Perhaps he would be more useful assisting either Knock Out or Shockwave.

After assigning them their separate posts, Megatron left the bridge to find out what Starscream had to report.

-:-

AN: Yay, another chapter done and complete! Urgh, staying up late to write has its disadvantages.


End file.
